Broken Smile
by miller26e
Summary: Two rivals. One summer camp. Loads of drama. GAME. ON.
1. Chapter 1

Yes I know, ANOTHER story. But I agreed to continue this one for a friend of mine, NileysDestiny or Carter if you know her. She just had a lot of things pile up, so she just asked me to finish this story. She already had four chapters written, so I copied and pasted them into one whole chapter. And the stuff at the beginning is just character explanations. Sorry if it is confusing, but hopefully things with smooth out once I get going. Tell me what you think in a review!

**Disclaimer: Nothing in this first chapter is mine. NOTHING. It is all Carter's idea. And all these characters are legal because THEY ARE MADE UP. Also, just because characters are based off certain real people, does not mean that they are those characters because you know, that would be AGAINST FANFICTION POLICY or whatever. So yeah. **

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_**Nick Johnson**_: Your average rich boy. His family owns a very successful linen company, 'Softness Lino.' His secret passion is playing music, but no one knows this. He goes to school at Stillwood High and is the captain of the soccer team there. For his summer plans, he is going to the sports camp, 'Game On'. And the one person he despises most in the world is Miley Robinson.

_**Miley Robinson**_: Your average rich girl. Her family owns a very successful linen company, 'Lie Down Linen.' Her secret passion is playing music, but no one knows this. She goes to go at Westville High and is the captain of the cheer squad there. For her summer plans she is going to the sports camp, 'Game On'. And the one person she despises most in the world is Nick Johnson.  
_**  
Demi Heller**_: The quiet popular one. She is best friends with Miley. She goes to school at Westville High and is on the cheer squad. This summer she plans on going to the same camp as Miley, 'Game On.' She has a crush on Joe Johnson but no one knows, not even Miley. And Joe hardly knows who she is.

_**Joe Johnson**_: The 'older brother'. He puts on the 'jerky rich kid' act but he's really sweet and caring. He's brothers with Nick and also attends Stillwood High. He's on the soccer team there but doesn't really like it, he secretly loves acting. He too, will be attending the summer camp 'Game On' this summer. He doesn't date, he's afraid of having his heart broken.

_**Selena Johnson**_: The tomboy. Full time skateboarder and part time soccer player. She hates soccer and only plays it because her brother's do. She's twins with Nick and goes to school at Stillwood High. She has no best friend, she usually just hangs around with her brothers. She's never had a boyfriend. Summer plans? She is also going to the summer camp 'Game On', although she doesn't want to.

_**Kevin Johnson**_: The oldest of the Johnson family. He's out of school and goes to college. He's the sweetest guy you could ever meet. He can't stand his dad, says he's 'too caught up in all the success'. Single and not looking, he just got out of a four year relationship and is still very hurt over it. He's worried that his brother Nick will end up like his dad and is trying everything to not let that happen.

_**Zac Robinson**_: Miley's older brother. He coaches the Westville soccer team. He's dating Vanessa Heller and is happily in love with her. He cares about Miley more than anyone else and knows that she secretly loves playing music but has never said anything about it. This summer he's going to the camp 'Game On' to coach there, too.

_**Taylor Heller**_: Asshole. Jerk. Heartbreaker. Rude guy. Every one of those things in one. The only things he cares about are soccer and his younger sister, Demi. He's the captain of the soccer team at Westville High and hates the Stillwood soccer players more than anyone. He's never had a relationship that lasted longer than three weeks. He's attending the camp, 'Game On', too.

_**Vanessa Heller**_: The oldest of the Heller family. She can't stand her younger brother, Taylor. She wishes he would go back to being the sweet little kid he was in fourth grade. She's dating Zac Robinson and is happily in love with him. Her best friend is Ashley Robinson and this summer her and Ashley are renting a beach house a short distance away from 'Game On' the summer camp, together and staying there.  
_**  
Ashley Robinson**_: The party girl. She's out of school and works at her dad's company to make money. She's best friends with Vanessa Heller and she's the middle child of the Robinson family. She's staying at the beach house with Vanessa this summer and her dream is to fall in love.

_**Family lists so you don't get confused. :)**_  
**The Robinson Family**: Miley Robinson, Zac Robinson, and Ashley Robinson.  
**The Johnson Family**: Nick Johnson, Selena Johnson, Joe Johnson, and Kevin Johnson.  
**The Heller Family**: Demi Heller, Taylor Heller, and Vanessa Heller.

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**(Miley's POV)**

"Oh my god! Last day of school!" I walked into the school building; arms linked with my best friend, Demi Heller.

"I know!" She squeaked in that little voice of hers.

I let go of her arm and started spinning down the hallway, "This summer is going to be great! This summer is going to be great! This summer is going to be great!" I chanted until I ran right into Taylor Heller, Demi's (asshole) brother.

"Awe, that excited to spend the summer with me?" he said in a playful tone, winking at me.

I shoved his chest, "Gross, Taylor. Go talk to someone who cares." I walked away from him with Demi, giggling, behind me.

I rolled my eyes, "I can't believe you live with him."

"Me neither."

I laughed, "Let's just get to class."

**(Nick's POV)**

'_Three...two...one_,' I counted down silently in my head. Then I heard the bell reverberate throughout the classroom. I grabbed my books and stood up, oh for the love of god. You have no idea how much I wished that was the last bell of the day.

"Time for lunch, man," my brother Joe said, walking past me.

I rolled my eyes, "No shit."

I followed him out of the classroom and to the lunchroom, winking at a few of the girls ogling at us as we passed. After getting my lunch and taking a seat at the table I sat in everyday, my twin sister, Selena, turned to me.

"Guess what I just found out?" she asked me, taking a bite out of her apple.

I took a sip of my water bottle, "Mm?"

She laughed and took another bite out of her apple, "Miley Robinson is coming to Game On, too."

I spit out the water my mouth was holding, "She's what? She can't come! My perfect summer will be ruined!" I slammed my head onto the table, "No. No. No. No. No," I said, banging my head again in between every 'No.'

Joe looked at me weirdly, "What's the big deal? The Robinsons are cool."

I lifted my head up and glared at him. "Miley Robinson is the devil's secret partner," I said through gritted teeth.

Selena burst out laughing, "D-devil's... secret... partner?"

I shot my death glare onto her, "Y-yes! She's...UGH." I threw my hands up in exasperation before standing up and walking away, followed (as I vaguely noticed) by the many eyes of the 'adoring girls'. I rolled my eyes as I swooped out of the lunch room, deciding that it was the last day of school. Ditching won't do me any harm.

**(Selena's POV) **

Where the hell did he go? Did he seriously think it was a good idea to ditch school on the LAST day? Dammit. I shouldn't have told him about Miley. I bit my lip, a thing I do when I get nervous.

"Don't worry about him, Sel," Joe said, walking to class with me, "He can handle himself. He makes a mistake, he pays the consequences. Let's just get to class."

I sighed, Joe was right. Nick makes mistakes. He pays the consequences.

"Let's think about positive things..." Joe continued, "We're leaving to Game On tomorrow!"

I plastered a fake smile on my face and groaned silently in my head.

Ick. Soccer.

I shook my head and walked into the classroom. Two more hours and I'm free.

**(Miley's POV) **

I tapped my pen impatiently on my desk. Almost. There. Almost...there...

Finally, the bell rang throughout the classroom.

"YES!" I was the first to jump out of my seat and grab my bag. I stood up from my chair and did a little dance, "It's summer! It's summer! It's summer!" I turned around and saw the teacher glaring at me. I giggled and jumped off my seat, grabbing my bag and running out of the classroom, where I then collided headfirst with Demi.

"OW!" we both yelled at the same time, bursting into giggles right afterwards.

"How was your last class?" She asked me, standing up and offering her hand out to help me up.

I took her hand and stood up, "Ew! Let's not talk about school!" I started jumping in circles around her, "Because its summer! Woo!"

She laughed and started walking towards the exit, "You, my friend, are crazy."

"But that's why you love me!"

She smiled, "True, true."

I ran towards my car, "SHOPPING TIME GIRL! WE'RE LEAVING TOMORROW!" I yelled, opening the car door and getting into the driver's seat as Demi took a seat beside me.

"TO THE MALL!" She yelled.

**(Nick's POV)**

I walked into my house and slammed the door behind me,

"Where have you been?" My mother yelled at me the second I walked in, "You _ditch_ the last day of school and then come home an _hour_ after supper the day before you leave for _two months_."  
I brushed past her but she kept talking, "And you need to pack! You are leaving bright and early tomorrow morning!"

I started walking up the stairs, "NICK! Don't ignore me!" She continued.

"Alright mom! I'll pack now, okay?" I ran up the rest of the stairs and slammed my bedroom door shut, locking it and falling down onto my bed.

"Damn everything," I mumbled, grabbing my laptop and signing onto AIM...

**(Miley's POV) **

I tucked the last shirt into the corner of my suitcase and zipped it shut. "Done," I said with a smile on my face.

I sat on my bed and opened my laptop, immediately receiving two new IM's.

_'Demi: IN 24 HOURS WE'RE GONNA BE IN A HOTEL ON THE BEACH. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.'_  
I laughed and typed back,  
_'Miley: I KNOW I'M SO EFFING EXCITED.'_

I sent that and opened my next IM, instantly wishing I hadn't.  
_'Nick: Don't come.'  
'Miley: Go to hell.'_  
_'Nick: What will it take to make you not come?'  
__'Miley: You. Dead. Goodbye.'_

I closed the IM and quickly signed out of AIM before he could respond. I had to count about three seconds before my cell rang with a new text from Demi, _'Gee. That was nice of you.'_

I smiled a little, _'I'm sorry. Nick issues...'_

Three...two...one...and there's my cell ringing, "Seriously. How the hell do you guys expect to spend a whole summer together?"

"Easy. I'm going to avoid him." I smiled to myself, talking into the receiver.

"All summer? Good luck with that."

I rolled my eyes, "Whatever. I will. Anyway, I should probably go to bed. I have to be up early tomorrow morning. Goodnight best friend."

"Okay fine, but I would come up with a better idea than just avoiding him all summer."

"I will later, but for now I'm sticking with this plan. Now, goodnight Demi."

"Night Miles," she laughed.

**(Zac's POV) **

I looked around at the rest of the coaches. "You guys aren't serious, right?" I asked them with a stern look on my face.

I was at the final staff meeting before camp started and we were discussing roommates. I continued talking, "You're going to allow boy-girl roomies? What do you want, kids to go home pregnant this summer?"

The head of staff (whose name I cannot remember for the life of me) turned to me, "We don't have any other choice. There are many more boys this summer then there are girls."

I shook my head, "This is ridiculous. Parents will not stand for it."

"Oh, but they already have." He continued, looking around at the table, "I've spoken to all parents. The ones who are not okay with their children being in the same room as the opposite sex will, of course, not have their children placed there. But many of them said it was fine."

I rolled my eyes, "My parents would never allow it."

He smiled at me, "Actually, your parents are the ones who pitched the idea when I told them about the problem."

I opened my mouth in shock, and closed it before I could say anything that would get me fired this summer. "Whatever," I mumbled.

**(Miley's POV)**

"Wake up! It's time to go!" My mother shook my bed, "Up! Up! Up!"

I groaned, no one should be that chipper in the morning. "I'm up..." I mumbled into my pillow. My mom pulled the covers off of me, "You don't want to miss your flight! Get up!" she yelled, walking out of my room. It took me a moment to remember what she was talking about before I jumped out of bed and practically landed in the clothes I was wearing for the flight. As soon as I was ready I ran down the stairs, already texting Demi to make sure she's awake.

"Your suitcase is already in the car," my dad told me, smiling up at me from the table. He stood up and put his arm around me, "I'm going to miss you this summer, bud. Take care of yourself. Don't cause too much trouble for your brother."

I laughed and hugged him tightly, "Tell Zac not to cause too much trouble for me."

He smiled and pulled away, "I already have." He took out his wallet and handed me what seemed like five hundred dollars, even though he'd already given me money for the summer. I stuffed it in my back pocket and hugged him again, "Thanks Daddy. I love you."

**(Nick's POV)**

My iPod was on full blast. The windows were rolled down. We were driving down the highway towards the airport. Joe and Selena were planning what they would do when they first got to the camp; I sighed and closed my eyes.

"Hey, Nick," Selena said loudly, poking my side, "Nick. Nick. Nick."

Annoyed, I pulled out my headphones, "What?"

She rolled her eyes at my anger and pointed at the luggage in the trunk, "What's that huge box next to your suitcase?"

I froze for a second, not knowing how to respond, "Uh...it's...um...something. None of your business." I put my headphone back in and turned to look out the window.

"Freak..." I heard her mumble as she turned back to Joe.

Our chauffeur pulled up at the airport and stepped out of the car, opening our doors before walking to the trunk and pulling out all of the luggage. I spotted all my friends around me, also getting out of their cars and saying goodbye to their parents. I sighed; mom and dad were at a linen show in Italy. They called to tell us to have a great summer.

Classic.

I took my luggage from the chauffeur and thanked him before setting it down on a cart and started to walk away. Selena and Joe walked behind me, still talking amongst themselves. I looked to my right and saw Taylor Heller. Rival school soccer captain. He caught my eye and nodded solemnly. He was walking with his sister...Jamie I think her name was? I nodded back and continued walking; waving at a few of the people I knew when I passed.

'_This is going to be a long day..._' I mumbled to myself.

19F...20F...21F...I listed off the chairs of the airplane as I walked down the aisle trying to find my seat. I finally reached 23F, my seat. I grabbed my bag and stuffed it in the compartment above before sitting down and leaning back. I turned on my iPod but before the music started playing I heard a familiar voice coming from behind me.

"... and Zac said we can go stay with Vanessa and Ashley on the weekends so it will be so much fun." I slowly turned my head just a little and glanced at the seat behind me.

Miley Robinson.

How pleasant. I closed my eyes and prayed quietly for her not to notice me.

"Nick?" Now that voice wasn't familiar. I opened my eyes and looked at the girl sitting beside Miley. It was Taylor's sister! Jackie? What. Was. Her. Name?

"Yes?" I said, trying not to make my voice sound like I hadn't slept all night and I really didn't want to be here right now.

"Uhm...hi," she mumbled, looking down at her hands and playing with her fingers, I heard a scoff coming from beside her and looked to see Miley glaring at me.

"Johnson," she said coldly.

"Robinson," I replied just as cool.

She rolled her eyes at me and turned back to her shy friend who's name I was sure was Katie, "Anyway, Demi..." Demi! That was my next guess, I swear.

"...let's go see if we can find Taylor. Maybe he knows where Zac will be waiting." She stood up and glanced at me once, looking away quickly when she saw I was looking at her and walked out of her seat and down the aisle.

**(Miley's POV) **

He cut his hair shorter...

_WHO CARES MILEY?_

It looked kind of cute...

_NO IT DIDN'T. STOP THINKING THAT._

This little argument in my head continued throughout the plane ride. I looked to my right to see Demi sleeping with her mouth hanging open and couldn't help but giggle a little.

That was when I noticed that pretty much everyone on the plane was asleep. I glanced at the seat in front of me and saw him sitting in his chair with his iPod on, staring out the window. His eyes wide open. I coughed lightly just to make my presence known and his eyes quickly flashed to me, looking down quickly when he saw I was looking at him. I looked away blushing and stood up, carefully avoiding Demi's legs as I stepped around her and into the aisle. I looked at the front of the plane and noticed a completely empty row of seats and as I made my way to the front, I realized that I recognized most of the faces on the plane; either they were my classmates or my rivals.

I sighed and sat down in one of the empty chairs, closing my eyes and leaning back.

After a few moments of silence, I heard someone shuffling their feet beside me and I opened my eyes to meet a pair of those chocolate brown eyes that could go on forever.

_Snap out of it Miley._

"Uhm...hi?" I said awkwardly.

"Hi," he replied rudely.

All thoughts of me ever finding him cute disappeared quickly, "What do you want?" I snapped.

He sighed, "Look, for the next two hours can we please just pretend we don't hate each other? Joe is snoring really loudly and talking in his sleep. I don't want to sit near him."

It took all my power to not let my mouth drop open. Did Nick Johnson just say that? To _me_?

"So can I sit here?" He asked, snapping me out of my little trance.

"Uhm, sure..." I said, looking down at my hands and playing with my ring.

"Thanks," he answered, plopping down in the seat right beside me and taking out his iPod again.

I figured that if we're going to pretend we don't hate each other, I may as well try talking to him.

"Do you ever not use that thing?" I asked, watching him scroll through the songs.

He looked at me then back at his iPod, chuckling lightly, "Not really, it's basically my life."

I smiled, "You like music?"

He hesitated for a second before answering, "Uh, I-I like listening to music, if that's what you mean."

I looked at him weirdly, "What else would I mean?"  
He looked at me, locking eyes with mine and shrugged, "I don't know."

I had to look down quickly so I wouldn't get lost in his eyes, what the hell was wrong with me today?

"So who's your favorite?" I asked, referring, obviously, to singers.

He smiled, "Mayer."

I looked at him again, "John Mayer?"

He nodded. "I love him!" I squealed.

"Me too," he said, smiling, "He's like...genius."

"Totally," I said and then I giggled.

**(Nick's POV) **

So here I was, having a totally human conversation with Miley Robinson. The one person in the world I despised more than anyone. And to put the cherry on top of that, we're talking about music.

Yeah this summer is going to be one interesting summer.

I found myself watching her as she slept, when the pilot finally announced that we were landing. Her hair falling over her face, her cheeks slightly flushed because of the chill on the plane.

Me. Sounding like a total stalker.  
I figured it was a good idea to wake her up now and let her know we were landing. I shook her lightly and she slowly opened her eyes. "What?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.

"We're landing," I murmured, leaning back in my chair again.

After about a moment she jumped up. "Oh!" she said, as if she'd just remembered where she was.

"I better go make sure Demi's up and get my bags ready," she said, "Uhm...it was nice talking to you."

I smirked, "You too, Robinson."

She smiled and rolled her eyes before stepping over me and walking down the aisle, back to her seat.

"Here we go..." I mumbled to myself.

_~xoxo~_

**So for those of you who were already reading this story, welcome to my fanfiction! I'm Emily. And I'm pretty awesome if I do say so myself. Rofl. Just kidding. I do hope that I live up to this story though. And for those of you who have read my stories, you know that my updates are pretty sporadic. Sometimes they come within a week of each other and sometimes you have to wait a month for them.**

**Sorry about that.**

**My summer is packed with stuff, but I'm getting a laptop so that should help with the updating situation. Tell me what you think of this story! Please! I beg of you! I love feedback because it allows me to write my chapters based on what you guys are going to like. Or hate/like. Also, ideas are also greatly appreciated. Sometimes I tend to get writers block and that's when I'm going to need you guys! Don't be afraid to put an idea out there!**

**Anyway, I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up. I still have to get all my thoughts in order and stuff and actually plan out this story. But feel free to contact me beforehand if you want to talk. :)**

**_ONE MORE THING_: I'm most likely going to keep the chapters in Miley and Nick's POV, but we'll see. I find that too many different people talking can make it confusing. :D**

**follow me on twitter/ imagineyourlife**


	2. Chapter 2

So, I'm finally updating. I had this all ready to go for Niley day and then my computer decided to be annoying. Isn't that just perfect timing? Well, I finally got it uploaded, so I hope that you enjoy it.

By the way, after several requests I have decided to change the names of the characters. So from now on they will be Miley, Nick, Demi, Joe, etc. Since you can't see pictures of the characters like you can on YouTube, I think that this will make it easier to follow.

* * *

"Demi," I said while shaking her, "We're here. You have to wake up."

She batted my hands away and snuggled farther into her complimentary pillow.

"C'mon…wake up."

"I don't want to…" she mumbled.

"I know you don't want to but the plane is going to leave if you don't."

She groaned and slowly got up. Rubbing her eyes, she looked at me, "Where did you go?"

"Hm?" I asked, distracted by my bag which I was getting from the top compartment.

"I woke up a little while ago and you weren't next to me. Where did you go?"

"Oh…just to the front of the plane. There were some extra seats. I like being alone when I fly for some reason." I chanced a glance over to Nick. He was patiently waiting for his turn so that he could pull down his suitcase. I was surprised; I thought that he would be the type of guy that would be shoving people to get his bag first.

She looked at me weirdly, but shrugged, "Okay. Hey, do you know how long the drive is to camp? I really just want to get there and get settled in. This whole traveling thing is annoying."

"Uh, I'm not sure. Not far I think." I groaned. My suitcase was being difficult and wouldn't budge from the compartment. "Come on…gosh. This thing is like stuck up there!"

All of a sudden, I felt a hand cover mine and in one swift tug, my suitcase was toppling down. Thankfully, the hand grabbed it before it landed on top of me. "Here Miley."

I looked and saw that Nick was handing me my bag with a tentative smile on his face, "Thanks…Nick."

"Don't mention it." Then he quickly grabbed his own and made his way down the aisle and out of the plane.

Demi nudged me, "What was that all about, missy?"

I blushed. She would never let this go; I knew she wouldn't, "Nothing. Just drop it."

She reached up to grab her bag, "That was not nothing and don't try to convince me that it was. Did you and Nick actually just have a civil conversation?"

"Yeah…it's not a big deal. We just talked for a bit while everyone was asleep." I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I pulled it out and saw that it was a text message from Nick:

_This doesn't mean that I've suddenly decided to like you._

I scowled after reading it. He just ruined our short truce. What a jerk.

"Who's that from?'

"Nick. Trust me Dem, me and him are not all buddy-buddy now. For all I care he can go fall in a well." I noticed that we were almost the last passengers on the plane, "Let's go, scary stuff happens when you're alone on a plane."

"Scary stuff, huh? Like what?"

I tried thinking of something, but nothing popped into my brain. The one time that I need it, it fails me, "I…don't know. But don't you think that scary stuff would happen if you were alone on a plane? Like, the situation fits."

As we were walking out, my best friend turned to me and said, "You really confuse me fifty percent of the time."

"Is that a compliment?"

"I don't know…do you want it to be?"

"Yeah, I mean it would be nice if it was one. Or else I'll be sad about the fact that I confuse you."

"Then it's a compliment."

"Demi, Miley, hurry your asses up. You've still got to get your bags and the buses are waiting!" Demi's older brother, Taylor, yelled.

"We're coming Taylor, chill!" Demi yelled back. She rolled her eyes, "We're not that late."

"Well we were kind of the last people off the plane meaning everyone else got to baggage claim before us; meaning that they could already have gotten their bags and gotten good seats on the bus. So, technically your brother could be right about the buses waiting for us," I said, all in one breath I might add.

She thought about it for a moment and then nodded, "You've definitely got a point and I really don't want to be stuck with the crappy seats just in case it is a long drive."

We then speed-walked all the way down to baggage claim, earning us dirty looks from other people dwelling in the airport. Finally, we caught up to Taylor who was waiting for us.

"I grabbed both your guys' bags for you. I think that you both had two, right?"

"Yeah," Demi said happily, "We both had two."

"That was uncharacteristically sweet of you," I said suspiciously.

"I just want to get there, okay? And you two were going so slow that I figured I might as well grab your bags so that I could just get you on the bus and we would be off."

"Whatever Taylor. Let's go Dem." I linked arms with her and pulled her to the bus.

"Hey bro, how long is the ride to the camp," she asked over her shoulder.

"Like forty-five minutes. Why?"

"Just curious."

Luckily we were actually able to get good seats because Selena had saved them for us. "I didn't see you guys so I figured that I'd save you two good seats just in case."

"Thanks," I smiled gratefully. Now I wouldn't have to hear Demi complaining for the next forty-five minutes.

I wasn't close with Nick's twin sister at all. Selena and I didn't really talk a lot because of the whole her-brother-is-my-mortal-enemy thing, but she was really sweet and kind. Too bad Nick and I had hated each other all these years; I think Selena and I could have been very good friends. Well, possibly. I didn't know how she felt about cheerleaders.

"Are you excited for the camp?" I asked, striking up conversation.

"Yeah, it's going to be great," she said with a smile. But I could tell that she was lying. I was a natural at pretending I was okay. I was a pro at the fake smile. I could spot one a mile away.

"Great, huh? You sure don't sound very excited."

She was surprised, I could tell. She probably didn't think that anyone could see through her facade. All these years no one had noticed, so the fact that someone such as me comes along and calls her out on it gave her the deer-in-the-headlights look.

"I…don't really want to talk about it. At least, not here. Not when so many people could overhear."

"That's fine," I smiled, "But if you ever need girl talk, I'm the girl that you can come to. I'm pretty good at it."

"Thanks Miley…" She leaned back in her chair, but I lit up inside when I saw a grin settle on her face.

I decided to relax too when the bus driver got to the front to tell us about some "important safety precautions". All I could do was hope that I would never need to use these precautions because I definitely wasn't listening to a word he was saying. The only thing I could focus on was the fact that Nick was sitting diagonally across from me.

Why couldn't he be seated in front of me or behind me? At least then I wouldn't be able to see him by just sitting normally. But because of the seat he was in, I could see him out of the corner of my eye even if I was staring directly in front of me.

And it didn't help that he glanced back at me every couple of minutes. It was subtle, so that if I wasn't waiting for it every time, I would have missed it. I could tell that he knew I was enjoying it too; a smirk would cross his face every time he looked back to the front.

It's official, I hate this bus.

The entire forty-five minutes was pure torture for me.

I watched as we pulled into the beautiful camp. At the entrance there was an arch that read 'Game On', just like you see in the movies. There were wooden cabins everywhere and they were huge! Each one had to fit at least eight people, if not more. I saw other buildings as well. I figured that those had to be the mess hall, amphitheater, etc.

Surrounding the camp were all sorts of sports fields. I saw at least two giant soccer fields, basketballs courts, a baseball diamond, a football field, and I'm pretty sure that I saw a pool or two in the back.

"This place is amazing," Demi said incredulously. I saw that she had started bouncing her knee up and down, a sure sign that she was ready to get off of this bus.

"Um…yeah," I agreed, still in awe of the camp.

"Dude! This place is awesome!" I heard Joe yell from a couple rows up.

The bus drove up the bumpy road all the way to what I figured was the main hall. As soon as the driver opened up the doors, everyone scrambled to get out. When we finally all made it out of the stuffy bus and into the fresh air, we were met by a man and a woman.

"Hey everyone!" the cheerful woman said, "Welcome to Game On, I'm Sarah. And this guy to the right of me is Jake." The guy gave a little wave to us. He seemed nice enough, the same with the girl.

"You all can just leave your bags right here. No one is going to take them. And just head into the hall right behind me. The director will have a few words with you guys and then you will get your room assignments. Sound good?"

The group all murmured silent yeses and a wave of nods went through the crowd. We followed the two adults into the hall. "Take a seat wherever!" Sarah yelled.

Demi grabbed my hand and dragged me over to the table that was nearest to the front. I just giggled at her excitement. I looked back to the entrance and saw that Selena was following her brothers reluctantly to the table where all the boys were congregating at

"Selena!" I yelled over the noise of the room. She turned at the sound of her name and found me waving her over with a smile on my face.

She looked relieved and hurried over to the seat on the other side of me. "Thank you so much. If I had to spend another minute amongst those guys, I was going to scream."

I laughed, "No problem. You're one of us now. Right Demi?"

She smiled, "Yeah, of course!"

Right then a man came to the front of the auditorium with a microphone. "Welcome campers! I hope your trip here went well. I am the director here at Game On. My name is John. I have a few opening announcements before you guys can all go get settled in inside your cabins."

Cheers rippled through the crowd. Obviously everyone was ready to get settled in.

"Your daily schedules will be posted in your cabins and breakfast is promptly at eight every morning. All of you get to relax for the rest of the night but I want everyone at the bonfire tonight," he looked across the room pointedly. "Each and every one of you and if you don't show up, I will know."

He winked, "This summer is going to rock you guys, just open your mind up to it. Sometimes everything isn't what it first seems to be." John turned to the people next to him and whispered a few words.

The group of people started getting restless as the adults weren't paying attention to us. I turned to Demi and Selena, "Well that guy is…interesting."

"Yeah…" Demi said slowly. "Did you get the feeling like he was staring into your soul or something? It was kind of creepy."

"Very creepy," Selena agreed.

John got everyone's attention by clapping a few times. The auditorium quieted immediately; apparently they were creeped out by him too.

"I forgot one crucial piece of information that I think you guys need to know. Due to the lack of young women coming to the camp, we've had to turn the cabins to co-ed. And for those of you who do not know what that means, it means that girls and guys will be living in the same cabins together this summer."

Disbelief shot through me. There was no way I was staying in a cabin with a guy this summer.

"No," I said.

"Oh come on Miles, it's not that big of a deal."

"Yes Demi, it is."

"Oh, stop being such a drama queen. You'll be fine." She got up and walked over to where everyone was scrambling to get their cabin assignments from Jake and Sarah. She slid in between several people and was able to grab one of the papers that had the assignments on them.

"Okay," she said a little out of breath as she walked back over to us, "here are the assignments. Ready to find out who we're stuck with this summer?"

"I guess…" I sighed, grabbing the sheet from her hand. I skimmed through it until I found my name. "Okay…cabin 11. Miley Robinson, Demi Heller, Taylor Heller, Selena Johnson, Joe Johnson, and…no."

"What?" Demi asked, still excited that we were in the same cabin.

"No. I refuse to share a cabin with him. There is no fucking way."

"Who?" Selena asked, nudging my shoulder.

"Who do you think?" I spat, slamming the paper down on the table.

They peered at it cautiously. Written in that annoying little type that seemed to be mocking me was:

_Nick Johnson._

_~xoxo~_

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	3. Chapter 3

Enjoy! :)

**~xoxo~**

"Here man, I grabbed a list of room assignments," Joe said as he walked back over from the front of the room. I waited until he skimmed the page until he found our names. "So apparently we're in the same cabin. Along with Taylor, Selena…wow, it's going to suck having to share with her."

"Who else?" I asked impatiently. I had just seen a very angry Miley out of the corner of my eye. I was dreading the reason why she was so mad.

"Chill dude. Let's see…Demi? Who's that?"

"Taylor's sister. Now who else Joe?"

"Uh…oh."

"Oh? Oh doesn't sound good."

He laughed, "Wow. No one is going to leave the cabin alive after the summer is over. You and Miley are probably going to kill each other."

I froze. That was what I was afraid of. As far as I knew, I was the only one who was able to get piss off Miley that much. "Damn."

"Sorry bro, but who knows? You might end up liking each other."

I scoffed, "Yeah, sure we will."

"Hey! You never know," he said as we were walking back out to grab our bags and to head to our cabins. "You two might end up falling in love or something. That always happens in the movies."

"Well Joe," I replied, heaving my heavy bags onto my back, "this isn't a movie. Miley and I will definitely not be falling in love this summer."

"Whatever you say. But come on, you two would make one hot couple."

"We would not!"

"Okay, think about it. You're both attractive, smart, and popular. You two would make a great couple!"

"No. Do not even go there."

He chuckled, "And you know all those intense fights you guys get into?"

"Yes," I said wearily.

"Well think how hot the makeup part would be."

I aimed a slap to his head, but I was interrupted by Taylor who knocked into me.

"Whoa, watch it dude…oh. It's you," he said. "So apparently we're in the same cabin this year."

"Yeah. Whoever was in charge of the room assignments had serious mental issues."

Taylor laughed quietly, "I agree. Putting me and you in the same room is bad enough, but you and Miley is like asking for a triple suicide."

"Nick! Come on!" Joe yelled. He was already way ahead of the large group that had just exited the main hall. "We have to get the good beds!"

I turned to Taylor; "I guess I'll see you in the cabin."

"Yeah," he replied awkwardly.

I quickly ran past everybody to catch up with Joe.

"See, you're already making nice with the enemy. Or one of the enemies I should say."

"Shut up Joe, this summer is just going to be a lot more pleasant if we're not all trying to kill each other."

He just ignored my comment and started jumping up and down as we got closer to our cabin. When we finally reached the entrance, he eagerly flung open the door and walked in.

"Joe, calm down. We don't need any of your energy at the moment," I heard from inside. It sounded like Selena; which meant that Miley was already inside.

I took a deep breath and followed my older brother inside. I felt everyone's eyes fix on me as I walked in.

"Oh wonderful. I was hoping that you wouldn't change cabins," Miley said sarcastically.

"Sorry to break it to you, but I'm not going anywhere. If you don't want to share a cabin, then you go ask for a switch."

"Uh, no."

I looked around. The cabin was really nice. It had nice, large bunks, two bathrooms, and a living area with a couch, a couple chairs, and a television. Overall it was a pretty sweet place. I could spend the rest of my life here.

"Nice place," I said.

"No duh," Miley scoffed.

I scowled. Okay so I didn't necessarily want to share a cabin with her for the summer either, but at least I wasn't really bitching about it.

I turned as I heard the door open again. Taylor walked in with a smile on his face, but it dropped once he felt the tension in the room.

"Well isn't this going to be the most interesting summer ever," he chuckled. Then he threw his bag on the nearest available bed. Once everyone had claimed a bunk, the sleeping arrangements went like this: Miley, Demi, and Selena had each claimed a top bunk since they had gotten there first. Somehow I had ended up below Miley (how the hell did that happen?), Joe was below Taylor's sister, and Taylor was below Selena.

I repeat, how the hell did I end up below Miley?

I heard the door open yet again to reveal an older guy. He had to be a camp counselor or something, but he looked really familiar. I knew I had seen him before.

"Zac!" Miley exclaimed, throwing herself into his arms. I felt my fist clench up at the sight.

Wait…no. I wasn't supposed to be jealous of some random, older guy that had made his way into our cabin. Especially because he was hugging Miley and they were being…friendly with each other. No, that didn't bother me at all.

"Hey Miles," mystery guy chuckled, "How was the flight?"

She shrugged, "Eh…so-so. I didn't sleep at all so I'm going to be burnt out tonight."

"Well they don't have any activities planned for tonight, so you can get a good night's rest. Tomorrow is going to be packed with stuff."

"Okay, I promise to get some sleep tonight," Miley smiled. Then she gestured to everyone else in the room. "Zac, I think you know or know of everyone. You know Demi and Taylor obviously and I think you know the Johnsons."

He nodded, "Yeah. Kevin Johnson is working here this summer. He's a good guy. And isn't his younger brother, Nick, the one you fight with?"

"Yes he is. He's the one over there," she pointed to me. "And the brother over there is Joe and this," she walked over and linked arms with my twin, "is Selena, my new friend."

Zac smiled at us all, "Hey guys."

"Everyone, this is my older brother, Zac. He's an instructor here this year."

I let out a breath that I didn't even know I was holding. So he was her brother. I knew that I had seen him somewhere before. My family had known Miley's since…well forever. When we were little, they had been very close friends but as we got older and their rival businesses grew, they grew apart; hence the fact that their kids grew apart.

That's around the time that Miley and I started hating each other. But there was much more to it than that.

Joe nudging me interrupted me from my thoughts. "Nick, you okay? You kind of zoned out there for a minute."

"Uh…yeah. I was just thinking."

"About Miley?" he whispered with a smirk.

I shoved him, "No."

"Uh huh…sure you weren't." He laughed and went back to unpacking his stuff. That was when I realized Demi, Miley, and Selena had all left and Zac was gone too.

"Where did they all go?"

Taylor chuckled, "Wow, you really were zoned out. They all went to say hi to Miley's sister and Vanessa."

"Isn't Vanessa you and Demi's sister?"

"Yeah…"

"Then why aren't you going to say hi?" I asked confused.

"Me and my sister don't necessarily get along. It's better if we just avoid each other."

"Oh…" I trailed off awkwardly, "Sorry."

"Whatever. Who cares about me, right? Ness is doing great with her life and all I have to do is make sure that Demi is okay."

I didn't say anything. Truthfully, I didn't know what to say.

Joe spoke up, "So I forgot that Miley had an older sister."

"Yeah…Ashley. Her and Zac are twins or something," Taylor answered.

"And how old are they?"

"They're all nineteen. They graduated last year. You graduated this year right?"

Joe nodded and laughed, "Yeah. I'm like the odd-man out here. My roomies are all a year younger than me. And their siblings are all a year older."

"Age is but a number, bro," I said. "Plus, you're not that much older than Selena and I. Only a year older."

"Yeah, yeah whatever." He turned back to Taylor, "Dude, you have to go see your sister. Just get it over with."

He hesitated, "I don't know…she obviously doesn't want to see me."

"Come on. Just do it."

"Wait, why do you want to go so badly?"

"Well…you know...Miley's sister is kind of…hot."

I chuckled. Of course Joe would be thinking along those lines. Still, I was still surprised that we were both standing here having a normal conversation with Taylor. Okay so I wasn't necessarily completely involved in the conversation, but I was there. Taylor and I had always been enemies on and off the field. That is just the way it had always been and Joe had been on my side because he was my brother.

Taylor sighed, "Fine. Let's go before I change my mind."

"Yes!" Joe exclaimed and followed his new friend out the cabin door. I stood there awkwardly, debating on whether or not I was supposed to follow them. I had just decided not to when Joe ran back into the room.

"Aren't you coming? I know how badly you want to see Miley."

I scowled, "Shut up Joe."

"Come on, Nick," he laughed.

We all walked across the camp and down to the beach. There a large beach house was nestled by the ocean. Taylor knocked on the door and waited for someone to open it.

It swung open to reveal a girl who looked a lot like Taylor. She was beautiful. She had long, dark hair and big brown eyes. Her face was kind, but she had a glint in her eye that suggested that she wasn't as innocent as one might believe.

"Taylor?"

"Hey sis. Long time no see."

"Yeah…" she said awkwardly, but then she pulled him into a tight hug. "I missed you buddy."

His cheeks flamed red, but he hugged his older sister anyway. "I missed you too Ness."

She smiled and then noticed Joe and I standing there as well, "Who are you guys?"

Joe put on his most charming smile, "Hi there. I'm Joe. And you are?"

"I'm Vanessa." She shook his hand and laughed, "And I happen to be in a relationship Romeo."

He shrugged, "Doesn't bother me. I'd be willing to sneak around for a beautiful woman like you."

"Um…" she glanced at Taylor, who was trying his hardest not to laugh, "I'm flattered, really, but no."

Joe's shoulders slumped, "Fine…I understand. This is my brother, Nick."

"Are you going to hit on me too?"

"No…I'm the normal one of the family."

"Thanks Nick, really. That made me feel so good," Joe said sarcastically.

By this time Vanessa and Taylor were both laughing hysterically. Vanessa finally calmed down enough to invite us all inside.

"So I'm not going to give you guys the whole tour now because I'm too lazy but come back later and I will. But everyone is this way." She led us into the family room. Zac, Miley, Selena, Demi, and a blond girl that I knew to be Ashley were sitting and talking.

"Look who I found outside!" Vanessa exclaimed.

"Taylor?" Demi asked surprised, "I didn't think that you would show up."

"Yeah well…I changed my mind."

"Um…Ash, you obviously know Taylor but the other two are Joe and Nick. They are Selena's brothers," Miley said.

"Ooooh…Nick. Now where have I heard that name before?" she smirked.

"Shut up Ashley," Miley replied, smacking her arm.

"Hi boys," she said sweetly, "Miley has told me a lot about you two. Especially one of one you."

Joe cut in, "Well hopefully she said all good things about me. I'm Joe."

"And I'm too old for you."

"What is with you girls? Usually people kill to get a date with me."

Vanessa wrapped an arm around her best friend, "Well Mr. Johnson, we're not like most girls."

"I can see that," he grumbled.

"Oh cheer up Joe, there are tons of other girls that are going to be at camp. I'm sure one of them will fall for your…charm," Miley consoled him.

His eyes lit up. "You?"

"No."

"Oh."

I shot Joe a dirty look, and he just smirked at me and mouthed, 'What?'

I shook my head. Sometimes I didn't know how Joe could possibly be my brother.

"So we were all just talking about the camp," Demi said. "Are you all sticking with soccer?"

"Duh. Why would we play anything else?" Joe said.

She threw her hands up in defense, "Hey, I was just wondering."

"Oh…sorry. I didn't mean to…um, yeah. I didn't mean for that to come off that way. So what do you do?"

"Cheerleading. But who knows? I might try soccer."

She smiled and I watched as Joe started to blush. This was a sure sign that he liked her. A sure sign. I had only ever seen him be this away around one other girl and that was his girlfriend from his sophomore year. But then she moved away and they never spoke again.

But yes, he definitely was starting to like Demi.

"I'm going to go grab a glass of water. Nick, will you come with me?" Miley said suddenly.

I looked at her weirdly, but she motioned for me to follow her. Since everyone in the room knew that we weren't really friends (or civil to each other), so their eyes followed us as we walked out of the room and into the kitchen.

"Um…yes?" I asked.

"Will Joe hurt Demi?"

"What?" I was a little confused. Obviously. Did this girl ever make sense?

"I saw that little exchange in there. Joe likes Demi and Demi is my best friend, therefore I have to protect her. Will he hurt her?"

I sighed, "I don't know Miley. I mean Joe can be bipolar when it comes to girls. There is always a chance, you know?"

She ran a hand through her hair, "That's what I was afraid of…"

"But, you shouldn't write him off so quickly. Maybe Demi will be different."

"I guess," she sighed. Then she looked up at me with wide eyes, as if she had just realized that she had asked me for advice. "Um…thanks."

"Yeah, of course. I'm going to be sharing a cabin with them too, so I don't need them to break up and for it to be awkward."

"Is that all you ever think about? How a situation will affect you?"

"I don't have to explain myself to you Miley."

"I never said that you did, but you're being a little selfish don't you think? I'm trying to protect my best friend and you're worried about yourself."

She was glaring at me so fiercely that I didn't have a comeback for her.

"That's what I thought."

"Miley-," I started, but Zac calling us from the living room interrupted us.

"Are you two coming back or what?"

Miley gave me one last look before sighing and making her way back out of the kitchen. I followed her, knowing that this little chat of ours would probably be the first of many to come. We somehow always found something to fight about.

Always.

**~xoxo~**

**So I'm going to hope that you guys liked it. And that it wasn't too confusing. I don't think that I need to specify who's POV it is in each chapter but if I do, then just let me know. I have no problem with it.**

**I'm going to be on vacation for practically all of July, so I'm going to try my best to find time to write. But if I do get behind with updates, just tweet me or send me a PM or something. I don't mind a little reminder every once and a while.**

**Review?**

**follow me on twitter/ imagineyourlife**


	4. Chapter 4

**_For Melissa. Now it's your turn to update. :D_**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**_~xoxo~_**

"Okay, is it just me or is this food amazing?" I asked.

"It's definitely not just you…" Demi replied while taking another bite out of her hamburger. "It's way better than the food we have at school, that's for sure."

"I know! The only downside is that we have to sit with _all_ the people in our cabin."

Joe gasped, "Well Miley, I didn't know you felt such strong dislike for me."

"Ha-ha Joe. You know I wasn't talking about you." I made a point to glare at Nick at that moment.

I heard him groan and go back to stabbing his peas with his fork. I was surprised that he didn't come back at me with some smartass remark. I didn't _really_ mean to say anything that was directed at him, it just sort of came out. I always said stuff like that before I really thought about it.

Although most of the time he did deserve it.

So back to the food subject. We were all in the mess hall for our first dinner and like I said, the food was downright amazing. Our 'group' (if that's what you want to call it) left Vanessa and Ashley's beach house a little while earlier and then headed straight for dinner. It was nice because it was like restaurant-style, meaning that you got to order whatever you wanted off the menu. You didn't have a set meal.

"So…what is everyone's plan for tomorrow?" Selena said, trying to break the tension.

"Cheerleading," Demi and I said simultaneously, while everyone else responded with soccer.

She laughed, "I don't even know why I asked. I could have guessed your answers and been right."

"Well what about you Sel?" I asked.

"Oh, um…soccer of course. What else would I do?"

"You could try cheerleading with us."

"I can't really picture myself in a cheerleading uniform," she giggled, "but maybe I'll try it one of these days."

"Selena, you're not a cheerleader, you're a Johnson. Johnsons play soccer, we always have. Don't let some girl change your mind about that," Nick said harshly.

I bit my tongue. I really wanted to say something along the lines of, 'What if she doesn't like soccer, jerk?' But I didn't because this was Selena's battle and I shouldn't fight it for her. Even if I really, really wanted to.

"Shut up Nick. I can do whatever I want. It's not like I have parents to disappoint or anything. All they care about is their stupid company."

The table went silent. Everyone knew that everyone here had parent issues. Sure, each person had different issues but it all came down to the same thing: they lived in a world where they had anything and everything at their fingertips. They could go anywhere, they could buy anything; all they had to do was stay out of their parents' way.

For me, it was a slightly different situation. I really did love my parents and they were great parents when they were around. But when they were off on business, they were gone. I got a phone call once every couple days if I got lucky. Thankfully Ashley and Zac had stayed close and always made sure that I was okay. Even when my parents were home, they still checked up on me constantly. I think that's why we were so close.

I opened my mouth to speak, but I saw John get up in the front of the room, so I quickly closed it. He began to talk. "So guys, it is pretty late already. Why don't you all head back to your cabins so we can all have a fresh start in the morning?"

Most people grumbled, probably because they weren't ready to go to sleep this early, but John just chuckled, "Now, now, it's not the end of the world. Remember, be up nice and early so that you won't miss breakfast!"

Everyone started to move at once; they all made their way to their separate cabins. Our group walked towards ours and we all scrambled inside when we got there. I don't think any of us realized how tired we were until we all flung ourselves onto our beds.

I got ready for bed quickly, and then climbed up onto my bunk and snuggled into the covers. Since it was a new bed, I couldn't quite find a comfortable position. I tossed and turned for a little while.

"Will you stop moving?" Nick hissed.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. It's annoying, just stay still."

"I'm trying to get comfortable so shut up." After that, I really did try and stay still, but I wasn't in a good position yet. I turned a couple more times; partly to get comfortable and partly to spite Nick.

"Stop!" he yelled again.

"Will the two of you just shut up? Some of us are trying to sleep here," Taylor said irritably.

I huffed. Thankfully I had just found that perfect spot, so I was done tossing and turning. I drifted off into a deep sleep pretty quickly and stayed like that for the rest of the night.

The world was shaking. Oh my god, were we having an earthquake? What did they teach us about surviving earthquakes in school? Stop, drop and roll. Wait, no. That was for fires or something. In the case of an earthquake emergency we were supposed to…what was it? Wait! Get under a doorway or a desk or something. Yes, that was it.

"Miley!"

I shot up quickly. "I need a doorway!" I yelled.

"There's one right over there, now get up. My gosh, you sleep like a rock. I've been shaking you for the last ten minutes."

"Demi?"

"Yeah, it's me. Are you okay?"

"I'm…fine." I felt my cheeks heat up slightly. I wasn't going to tell her that I thought I was in an earthquake when it was actually her shaking me. That would be embarrassing.

"Well get up, breakfast is in twenty minutes."

I slowly got down from my bunk. "Do we go straight to our classes after breakfast or can we come back here first?"

Demi thought for a minute, "I think Taylor told me that we have a fifteen minute window between things."

"Okay. I'll run back here then to get changed into my cheerleading stuff."

Breakfast went good. The food was just as good as the night before. I chatted happily with Demi and Selena, exchanged banter with Joe, glared at Nick, and didn't necessarily have any contact with Taylor. It was a pretty good breakfast.

I was walking out with Demi and Selena, when a vaguely familiar guy walked up to us. "Hey guys!"

"Kevin! I was beginning to think that you lied about working here. I haven't seen you at all," Selena exclaimed.

He shrugged, "I've been in the office. They're not very organized when it comes to paperwork, so I've been helping out with that."

"Oh…well you remember Miley and Demi, right?"

"Miley definitely, but I don't think I've had the chance to meet Demi yet." He offered up a small wave, "I'm Kevin. Sel's oldest brother."

"Hey!" Demi smiled.

"I remember you from like forever ago!" I said.

"It has been a long time." He glanced over to where someone was calling his name and he groaned, "Sorry girls, I've got to run. Have fun today!"

As he walked off Selena turned to us, "So that's Kevin."

"He seems nice," Demi said with a smile.

"Yeah…he's really heartbroken though. His bitch of an ex-girlfriend cheated on him. He was devastated. He really thought that she was going to be 'the one'."

"That's terrible," I said with a frown, "How long were they together for?"

She shrugged, "I don't know. Like four years maybe?"

"Wow…that must suck."

"Yep," Selena replied, "I'm just glad that he got this job. It might take his mind off of things for a while."

"Let's hope," I sighed. Suddenly I remembered that I had to finish getting changed. "Crap. I have ten minutes to get changed. Demi, do you want to come with me?"

"Sure," she shrugged.

"Okay." I turned to Selena, "We'll see you later?"

"Yeah," she smiled.

"Have fun at soccer!" I exclaimed before taking off towards my cabin.

Fifteen minutes later we were meeting with our cheerleading coach. She was pretty tall, with long blond hair, and green eyes. She was beyond fit, and she looked as if she was in her early twenties.

"Hi girls. I'm going to be your coach this summer. I'm Kylie."

"Hi Kylie!" we all said enthusiastically. There were about twelve of us huddled around our coach.

"So all of you were put in this higher level group because of your talent. I've watched every one of you guys and I have to say, I'm pretty excited about this summer. We are going to have one kick-ass routine by the end. Who agrees with me?"

A chorus of 'Woooo!' Yes!' and 'Definitely!' went through the team. I liked this coach already, she already had everyone in the spirit of things and we had barely started.

"Great! Now we're just going to start off today by stretching for a little while. I don't need any of you guys pulling any muscles under my watch. So pair off and let's get started!"

We stretched for a good hour. Then we spent another hour getting warmed up. It might not have been any actual choreography yet, but Kylie had blasted the music, so I was still having loads of fun.

Around noon, the coach shut the music off. "It's lunchtime! I'll see you all back here in an hour and we'll start the choreography. Now keep in mind that while yes, it is cheerleading, it is also going to have a dance element to it. The routine isn't going to be all 'ra-ra', so don't be surprised if I throw in some moves that are new to you."

Her announcement put me in a good mood. I had taken dance classes since before I could remember and I had always loved it. The only reason I joined the cheer team was because that was the closest thing they offered to dance at my school. Of course, I ended up loving cheerleading, but I missed dance all the same.

"This is so exciting. Oh my god this summer is going to be awesome!" I was literally bouncing up and down out of excitement.

Demi laughed, "Calm down. You need food, come on." She dragged me over until we reached the mess hall. She gasped, "We can eat outside!"

"Seriously?" I squinted at the small sign, "You're right! Wait, we need to find Selena."

We looked for her through the throngs of people. Finally we spotted her a couple of yards away. "Selena!" I called, "Over here!"

She walked over, "Hey guys! Did you hear that we can eat outside during every lunch?"

"Yeah! I just read that!" Demi exclaimed, "I know Miley's happy."

Selena laughed, "Knowing my brothers, they'll come sit with you anyway."

"I hope not," I scowled. "I mean, Joe is fine, but Nick needs to be nowhere near me."

"What happened between you guys?" Selena asked, "You guys used to be really close, remember? I was always jealous of him because I wanted you to be my best friend, but it was you two her were close."

I sighed, "It's nothing, really. We just grew apart."

"But…when people grow apart, they don't end up hating each other. The two of you really close up until the end of eight grade and then you two wouldn't even talk to each other."

"Whoa, eight grade?" Demi said shocked, "I thought that you two had hated each other since forever. You never told me that you were that close for that long. See, this is what happens when you come to a new school as a freshman. You miss everything."

"Yeah, well it's no big deal. Shit happened, that's all. Now let's go get food."

I walked quickly towards the mess hall with my friends following slowly behind. I filled my plate up with more food than I could eat and then scouted around for a good spot. There was an available spot right under a patch of trees. It was really nice and one of those 'perfect' spots; the ones that you just know will make you smile when you sit down.

Okay yes, I realize how lame I just sounded. But it was all true.

Selena and Demi hesitantly sat next to me. "Are you still mad at us?"

"Mad? Why would I be mad?"

"We just kind of…dug into your past a little bit. You seemed upset when you left to get food."

I sighed, "I promise I'm not mad. It's just the subject that upsets me."

"Okay…" Demi said unsurely.

The rest of the lunch was what someone would call awkward. I was lost in my thoughts, which left my friends to worry about me. Thus, it was uncomfortable.

A little while later Demi and I were back with Kylie, learning the routine. This girl seemed sweet on the outside, but she sure did know how to make my thighs hurt.

She walked over to me as I was showing Demi how to do the newest move. "You're Miley, right?"

"Yep, that's me," I smiled.

"It's so great to meet you! I've seen a lot of videos of your performances. I must say I'm excited to be teaching you this summer."

"Thank you! You seem to know what you're doing, so I'm excited too."

She smiled, "Well thank you very much." She turned to Demi, "And you're…Demi?"

"Yeah. Nice to meet you," she said.

"You too. I've watched you as well, you've got a lot of talent."

Demi blushed, "Thanks Kylie."

"So girls, I have to go around to the other people but hopefully you'll come and talk with me some other time. Don't be shy, I don't bite."

We laughed, "Will do."

As she walked towards some of the other girls, I turned to Demi, "She's really nice."

"Yeah…I like her."

I smiled, "Now let's go back to teaching you that tuck-jump."

"I know how to do a tuck-jump! It's just this has like special moves and I can't make my body move that way."

"Demi! Calm down," I laughed. "You can do it, just watch me." I did the jump perfectly, leaving Demi even more frustrated.

"Why is it that you can do it perfectly and I can't? I've done a million of these before."

"It's not the end of the world. You'll get it eventually."

It took the rest of the practice for Demi to finally get it. Her expression when she finally did make it was so cute though. I love the feeling of finally getting something after a lot of practice.

"What do you want to do now?" Demi asked.

"I don't know…what else can we do here?"

"I don't know."

We both sighed. You see, we could go around the camp and find things to do. We could figure out what the best activities were and all that, but we were way too lazy.

"Guys!" We turned around and saw Selena jogging over to us. "Okay, we are going on a boat."

"A boat?" I asked.

"Yes, a boat! Well, it's more like a canoe, but that still counts as a boat. Oh my gosh, it's so cute!"

"Do either of you even know how to work a canoe?" Demi asked. "I heard that they're difficult to maneuver. Sometimes you even end up going in circles."

"Well…I don't. But who cares? This is going to be so much fun!" I said.

"But first we have to go get changed into our bathing suits. You never know who will _accidently _go into the water," Selena said with a smirk.

I rolled my eyes, "If I go into the water, one of you will die."

By this time we had reached our cabin door. Somehow Demi and Selena were able to get changed extremely quickly, leaving me still only halfway dressed. Then we decided that they would go ahead and get the boat ready and I would meet them there in a couple minutes.

I finally located my swimsuit top at the bottom of my suitcase and I quickly got it on. I rubbed some sunscreen on my face and grabbed my sunglasses. I went to open the door, but instead it opened from the other side and the door hit me in the face.

"Ow!" I exclaimed, applying pressure to my forehead. I felt something sticky on my fingers and when I pulled them away from my face I saw blood. "Ow, ow, ow…"

"I am so sorry. I didn't know that you were there," the voice said.

"Don't you know not to open a door fast?" I exclaimed, still clutching my forehead. "I need a band aid."

"Just sit down on one of the beds and I'll find something to stop the bleeding."

I stumbled over to a bed and quickly sat down. I was starting to see dots in my vision. Great, this was just wonderful. A couple minutes later Nick kneeled down in front of me. Wait…Nick? Of course he did this to me. What a jerk.

"Here," he said, placing a wet washcloth on my forehead. He gently wiped the blood away and even let me grip his hand when it stung.

"I can't believe that you hit me with a door," I muttered.

"It's not like I meant to."

I rolled my eyes. I winced when he wiped the washcloth over my cut again, "Ouch."

"Sorry. Here," he carefully placed the band aid on my forehead. "And there you go."

"Thanks," I said quietly.

"Well I did hit you with a door. I figured the least I could do was help you clean up your battle wound."

I giggled. I just _giggled_ at something Nick Johnson said. What was the world coming to?

He was looking at me intently with those big brown eyes and I could feel myself slowly getting lost in them. His warm breath was on my face and I watched as he slowly leaned forward. I could feel myself meeting him in the middle, or at least my lips met his.

His lips were soft and they fit mine perfectly. His hands made his way to my head as he pulled me even closer to him.

When I finally needed air, I pulled away, "Nick, we can't do this."

"And why not?"

"We just…I mean…" I sighed. "Screw it." I pulled him back towards me, re-attaching our lips. I leaned back and somehow he ended up on top of me on the bed. A couple of seconds later, he rolled over so then I was on top of him.

"Much more comfortable," he smirked before going back to making out with me.

We spent a good five minutes like that before I pulled away quickly.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. What did we just do?"

"Miley, it's just making out. It's no big deal."

"It is a big deal Nick. It's a huge deal. We're supposed to hate each other and now we're making out. It makes no sense."

"Since when do things need to make sense? Why do we have to hate each other?"

"I don't know why we have to hate each other, but I do know that's what we're supposed to do. We're Miley and Nick. We hate each other. That's what we do."

"But Miles-,"

"Stop Nick! Okay? Just…stop. We're not in eight grade anymore. This can't happen."

"Miley! I-," he started.

But I shook my head and slowly backed out from the room, "I have to go."

I gave him one last look and ran from the cabin. I ran and ran all the way down to the lake that was on the opposite side of the ocean where Demi and Selena were waiting.

"What took you so long?" But then Demi must of noticed my pale face, "What happened Miles?"

I sighed and wrapped my arms protectively around myself, "Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

**_~xoxo~_**

**Review? :)**

**follow me on twitter/ imagineyourlife**


	5. Chapter 5

**It's been almost three weeks since my last update. I am so sorry. I've been on three separate, week-long vacations since the beginning of July. If you're interested (which I'm sure you guys totally are :P) I went to Maine, Lake Tahoe, and New York/Washington D.C. So that's the reason why my updates have been ridiculously slow. The next chapter is almost done and if you read Back to Home, that should also be updated in the next couple of days. Thanks for your patience!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**_~xoxo~_**

"Dude, what the hell is your problem?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," I grumbled, aiming a kick at the goal. Unfortunately, the ball missed its target by a good five feet. "Damn ball."

"You've been in a weird funk for like the last week," Joe said jogging to catch up with me while I walked over to get some water. Today was one of those hot days that made the sweat pour down my body.

I wiped the liquid from my brow and took a nice, long drink. Still, Joe was standing there waiting for my answer. "I've just been in a bad mood."

"Because of Miley?"

"No, just because of stuff."

"Miley stuff?"

I groaned, "No Joe. There have just been some things going through my head lately."

"Miley things?" he grinned.

"That's it. I'm leaving." I heard our coach, call for a break. _'Thank god for lunch,' _I thought to myself.

So of course, for the summer we all get broken up and put into separate teams. There are about twelve people per team and each consists of one coach. And guess who just happens to be on my team? Yes, Joe and Taylor. And Zac just happened to be my coach.

My life sucks.

"Hey Nick!" I heard Zac call from behind me.

I stopped and waited for him to catch up. "Yeah?"

"You have the rest of the day off. You walked away so quickly that I didn't get a chance to tell you."

"Why?" I asked surprised.

"Once a week the coaches and counselors and stuff have to get together and talk so we decided just to give you kids the rest of the day off."

"Oh cool. Thanks for telling me."

He smiled, "Sure. I've got to go, but Nick?"

"Yeah?" I said again.

"What's going on between you and my sister?"

I rubbed my temple. "Not you too. Nothing is going on. We don't get along, that's it."

He stared at me for a moment. "Miley isn't one to hold grudges. Sure, she'll definitely bitch people out but then she gets over it. You must be pretty special. She likes you a lot." Zac smiled and began to walk away. "See you later, Nick."

Why did everyone here have to be so damn insistent that Miley and I had more going on? My god. We obviously didn't. Well I mean, I was- am attracted to her but that means nothing. She made that blatantly obvious.

I headed back up to my cabin and took a quick shower. I knew that everyone would be getting lunch at the moment, so no one, like Joe, would come crashing through the door.

I grabbed my guitar case (which I had skillfully hidden from everyone else, and I'm sure that if they had seen it they just assumed I was smuggling something into camp) and then I headed for the lunch line. Thankfully, I was able to grab my lunch and headed down to the lake.

I settled next to some trees and I carefully pulled out my guitar. I began to play a few chords and I sang along quietly. "All this time goes by and still no reason why. A little bit longer and I'll be fine…"

A small cough came from behind me and I turned around to see Miley staring at me. "That was really good."

"Oh…uh, it's nothing. I'm just playing around with the guitar," I stuttered.

She gestured to the spot next to me. "Do you mind if I sit down?"

I was confused but I nodded anyway and she sat down next to me. "So you like music?"

"Yeah…"

"Is the guitar the only instrument that you can play?" she asked curiously.

"I can play the piano and the drums and some other stuff too. But I love the guitar."

Miley smiled, "Me too. I taught myself how to play a couple years ago."

"Seriously?" I asked surprised.

She laughed, "Yes, seriously. It's a good escape from everything. Just getting lost in the music is an amazing feeling."

"Does anyone know that you love to play music?"

"No. Well, I think my brother may know, but he hasn't said anything. What about you? Does anyone know about your music skills?"

"Nope. You're the first."

"Well don't I feel special?" she smiled. Miley paused and opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but then she closed it. Trying again, she finally said, "I'm sorry for what happened last week. I didn't mean to freak out on you. It's just…I can't do it again."

"Yeah, I get it," I sighed. "It's no big deal."

She looked at me skeptically and I knew that she didn't believe me but she dropped the subject anyway. "Did you hear that Joe asked Demi out?"

"What? No I didn't hear that! When did he ask her?"

"Last night, you know when he asked her to go get ice cream with him? That's when he asked her."

"How did I miss this? I mean we do all live in the same cabin."

She shrugged, "I don't know. You had left by the time they got back and you were asleep by the time we all got back to the cabin."

"Oh…" I said in understanding. I had been very non-social for the past week. I pretty much ignored everyone and kept to myself. "So that's why Joe was annoying chipper today."

"Probably. Demi was the same way. I was about to smack her in the face, but I guess it's good that they're both happy, you know?"

I smiled, "It is a good thing."

She stood up slowly and glanced half-heartedly back in the direction she came. "I better head back before they come looking for me. I said that I was going to go find a water fountain and that was a little while ago."

"Oh okay." I looked around. "Maybe I should go back too."

"No," she smiled. "Stay. Play your music because tomorrow you're once again Mr. Soccer Player. Bye Nick."

"Bye Smiley," I said quietly as she turned and walked away, but she still heard my old nickname for her. She stopped in her tracks.

"Do you ever wonder what would of happened if none of that shit went down four years ago? If we just didn't care about what people thought and just lived for ourselves?" she asked without turning around.

I sighed, "All the time. Maybe we'd be dating, going on four years. Maybe I would take you out on dates and sneak up to your bedroom after your parents went to sleep. Or maybe we would spend each night staring up at the stars and I would hold you and everything would be okay."

"Or maybe we wouldn't have made it. Four years is a long time to be together, especially if you're talking about us. We probably would have killed each other or annoyed each other or done something to tick each other off." Miley still refused to turn around and look at me."

I shook my head and smiled. "Nah. We would have made it, I know we would have."

She finally whipped her head around and I could see the tears threatening to come out. "Nick, we couldn't even make it three months before we let stupid family drama and what people thought of us get in the way."

This time I stood up and walked over to her, carefully so that I wouldn't startle her. I intertwined our fingers and made her look directly into my eyes. "We would have made it."

Then I kissed her.

It wasn't like the kiss we had shared the previous week, it was soft and slow and full of meaning. It held everything that I had wanted to tell her since eight grade. Since the last time we had kissed like this.

Miley placed her hands on my chest and gently pushed me away. "What are we doing?"

"I'm kissing you. Do you have a problem with that?" I whispered into her ear.

"I should. I should have a problem with that."

"I hear a but coming."

"But I don't and I don't know why. I'm supposed to hate you Nick. I've hated you for a long time and I'm not sure how all of a sudden it's really hard too. It used to be so easy. All I had to do was think of you, which I didn't do very often, and I just got so mad. You can even ask my diary, you're name comes up a couple times."

I sighed, "Fine."

"Fine? What do you mean by fine?"

"We'll take things slow. No-strings attached, but I bet that by the end of the summer you'll fall in love with me. But until that happens, there is no pressure. None at all."

She giggled but I could tell that she wasn't completely keen on my idea. "I'm not that kind of girl, Nick. I don't do casual relationships."

"Don't think of it as a casual relationship, think of it as us getting to know each other…again."

"I don't know…"

"Hey," I said, placing my finger under her chin and lifting it up so she was looking at me, "you're going to be falling in love with me anyway."

"Shut up."

"Nope. I just have a feeling."

"Why are you so sure?"

"Because as much as you want to deny it, I know you better than anyone Miley."

She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "We have to keep it a secret. Absolutely no one can know that we're hooking up or whatever you want to call it."

"Fine." I was expecting that anyway. I knew that she wouldn't want anyone to know about us.

She lowered her arms and walked a little closer to me. "I'm supposed to hate you," she whispered.

"There's a thin line between love and hate, babe."

"Why don't you hate me anymore? When we first got here you couldn't stand me. Hell, you've done more crappy stuff to me over the years than I can count."

I sighed, "I just got carried away."

"Carried away?"

"Carried away with the role I had to play to protect you."

"What?" she asked shocked. "What do you mean to protect me?"

"It's nothing. I'll tell you about it when you fall in love with me," I smirked.

"Jerk. You must hate me. Don't you know I don't like when people keep secrets from me?"

I smiled, "Trust me, Miles. I could never hate you. Not a for a second."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." I pulled her into another kiss. This one was more passionate than the last, but it didn't stop her from breaking into a fit of giggles.

"What?" I laughed. Just hearing her bubbly laughter was enough to make me laugh right along side her.

"I just missed you is all."

"Well I missed you too."

"Wait…does this mean we now have to _pretend _to hate each other? Or can we be friends? Because I'm sure that our friends will notice that something is up if we're not fighting twenty-four/seven."

"Let's be friends. We can even come up with a story."

Miley smiled. "Oooh…a story? Like what?"

"Well I don't know. Let's think of one. How about…we talked through our differences and are now on good terms. I'm sure they'll buy that."

"Yeah right. You say that and they'll know that we're hooking up. We have to have a better story than that. My gosh."

"Well I'm sorry," I said sarcastically. "What genius story can you come up with?"

"One that's better than yours I'm sure."

I paused, "We're fighting."

"I know," she sighed. "This must be some kind of record…"

"Okay, we're done fighting. Just…shake it off."

She smiled, "Alright. I'm shaking it off."

"Now for our story. What's your idea?"

"Well…how about on my way to the lunch line, I tripped over a rock and you saved me from falling. Then I was forced to say thank you, and you were forced to say you're welcome. And then we just went from there."

"Okay good story. Can we go back to making out now?"

She gasped, "You're such a pig Nick Johnson!"

"And you like it Miley Robinson," I grinned.

She just shook her head at me and leaned forward. I captured her lips in yet another kiss. I gently pushed her up against a nearby tree and my hands found their way to her waist. We stayed in that position for a couple minutes and then Miley pulled away.

"Do you think we're moving too fast?" she asked breathlessly.

I leaned into her neck and nibbled at it, "Do you think we are?"

"I don't know," she answered, but she didn't push me away which was a good sign.

"If you want me to stop, I'll stop. You know I would never push you to do something you don't want to do."

"Nick, it's not like I'm a virgin or anything. I'm just wondering if you think for a relationship that just got started today, if we're moving too fast."

I cringed at the not-a-virgin comment. That was information that I didn't need to hear. "I don't think we are. It's more like we're picking up from where we left off."

She smiled. "Yeah, it's exactly like that, isn't it?"

"Definitely. It's just like we're back in eight grade and we're making out on your bed."

Miley laughed, "Remember the time Zac walked in? And you're just like 'Uh…hey Zac. What's up?' I couldn't stop laughing."

"I can't believe that you were laughing at me! I seriously thought that he was going to kill me."

"He loves you. He might have wanted to kill you at the moment, but we were all laughing about it the next day."

"Yeah, but then your parents found out," I sighed.

"And then because my parents found out, your parents found out."

"That wasn't a very good day. I cried myself to sleep that night."

"I know…I was holding you, remember?"

She smiled, "Yeah…I remember. That was the only good part of it."

I just pulled her into a hug because I could tell that she needed it. We just stood there, her wrapped up in my arms, for a little while. I'm not even sure how long it was. But then she finally pulled away.

"You know, Demi is the best, best friend but no one can beat you."

"No one?" I grinned.

"No one. But don't let that get to your head. God knows your ego doesn't need to be any bigger," she laughed. "Now I seriously need to go. They all probably think I've been abducted by aliens or something. Or by scary, karate-chopping ninjas."

"Oh, karate-chopping ninjas?" I said, kissing her softly on the lips.

"Yeah. You now how wild their imaginations run," she answered while kissing me back. "Okay, I'm leaving."

As she began to walk away, I pulled her back, "One more kiss."

She rolled her eyes, but kissed me anyway. "Bye!"

I pulled her back again, "One more."

She didn't even try to resist and I felt her smiling into the kiss. "Now goodbye Nick. I'll see you later."

"Bye Miles." I said cheerfully.

Oh yeah, she was so going to fall in love with me by the time the summer was over.

_**~xoxo~**_

**So what did you think? They're kind of together now, so hopefully you guys will like that. :D**

**If you're confused by anything, just ask. And I would really appreciate reviews. But all of you are so amazing with that so I feel as if I don't even need to ask. Just tell me what you liked about the chapter and/or predictions, etc. :)**

**follow me on twitter/ imagineyourlife **


	6. Chapter 6

**Just so you guys know, updates are going to be slow over the next couple weeks because I have summer homework that I have to finish, I'm going on vacation again, and school starts in like two and a half weeks for me. But I love all the feedback I've been getting for this story. :)**

**_~xoxo~_**

"This is so strange," Demi said, staring at me.

"What's strange?"

"You and Nick being like…friends."

I laughed. If she was this weirded out by the two of us being friends, imagine how she would feel when she found out we were 'dating'. "I would have thought that you would have gotten used to it by now. It's been a couple of days."

"Still…it was just kind of sudden. Are you sure that nothing else is going on?"

I was saved from lying to my best friend's face by the arrival of Nick Johnson himself. Selena and Joe were trailing behind him joking about something or other.

"Nick! So glad you came to sit with us!" I reached up and grabbed his arm to force him down next to me.

He raised his eyebrows at me. "Uh…okay."

I smiled and subtly nodded towards Demi. His eyes widened in understanding and he inched away from me as to not give her any ideas. I felt sad over the lack of contact, but I shrugged it off. I didn't need to be getting attached to him.

Demi still looked at me oddly for another minute, and only looked away when Joe sat down next to her and kissed her cheek. She blushed and leaned back into him. "How was practice?"

He shrugged, "Same old, same old. How was yours?"

"Great! Our routine is going to kick ass. I swear, we are totally going to win at the finals…"

The two of them continued their conversation as I turned to Selena (and I'm sure Nick could hear as well) and half-whispered, "I think they forgot that we're here as well."

"I think so too," she whispered back.

I coughed loudly (and, yes, dramatically) to get their attention. They both looked over at me and Demi said, "Yes Miley?"

"Oh nothing. I love you," I smiled cheekily.

She rolled her eyes, "I love you too Miley."

I giggled, but then a realization came to my mind. "Oh shit!"

"What?" Nick exclaimed, startled by my sudden outburst.

I started to stand up and collect my stuff. "I was supposed to go meet Ashley at lunch today. She even made me repeat it like a million times so I wouldn't forget and now I've forgotten. She's going to kill me."

Selena laughed, "Just chill out. You'll be fine."

"You're not the one who broke a lunch date," I said pointedly. "I'll see you guys later."

I took off at a brisk pace towards their house. It really wasn't a huge deal that I was late, but I hadn't had a chance to talk with my sister in a long time; or at least I haven't had the chance to have a good talk with her. We had both been so busy over the last couple months.

I had walked clear across the lunch area when I felt someone grab my arm and turn me around quickly. "Miles!" they said, a little out of breath.

"Hm?" I saw Nick standing there with a smile on his face. "Why did you follow me?" I asked confused.

Now it was his turn to be confused. "I thought you wanted me to follow you. You said that you had to go see your sister…I thought that was code or something."

"Code? Code for what?"

"I don't know. Like maybe you wanted to hang out with me, but you couldn't because everyone was with us."

I burst out laughing. "Oh honey…did you think that I wanted to go make out with you or something?"

He shrugged with an innocent look on his face, "Well…I don't know. Kind of."

"Well I do have to go talk with Ashley," I smiled, "but we will hang out later. I promise."

"Okay…great, now I have to come up with a reason for why I came back."

"What was your excuse for leaving in the first place?"

"That I was going to go find Zac to ask him about a play we're learning. But then Joe wanted to come along so I told him that I was going to go to the bathroom first, so that kind of turned him off."

I giggled, "Nice. Just tell them that you changed your mind about finding Zac and decided to just ask him when you guys got back to practice."

"Good plan. Okay, I better go. I'll see you at dinner I guess." Nick leaned in for a kiss and against my better judgement (because we weren't dating and cute, random kisses were for couples) I kissed him back.

"Goodbye Nick."

"Don't worry, I'm leaving. Thanks for the kiss!" he yelled over his shoulder as he walked away.

I laughed quietly and continued my walk to the house. When I got there I could see Ashley through the window and I winced. She didn't look very cheery. Actually, her expression almost made me laugh…almost.

"Well it's nice of you to show up, Miles."

"Sorry! It totally slipped my mind."

She followed me out to the back porch that looked over the ocean. "I think I should just start stapling things to your forehead so you won't forget them."

"Yes, because that wouldn't hurt at all."

"I'll give you some morphine. You won't feel a thing," she laughed.

"So Ash, where's Ness?" I asked.

"You know, I think she and Zac went out for a picnic or something. Ness mentioned something along those lines to me."

"Fun! Those two are so cute together. They have like the perfect relationship; the kind that everyone looks up to and wants to have someday. I know that I want that."

Ashley smiled, "You will Miley. You deserve it. Is there anyone that you could see yourself having that relationship with?"

"Um well, there is…um. Yeah. Yes there is."

"Oh really? Why is it that I don't know about this guy?"

"Because he doesn't even really know yet. Apparently, he knows that I'll eventually feel that way, but he doesn't know I feel like that now."

She raised her eyebrows, "So you two are dating now?"

I shook my head. "We're…having fun."

"Oh Miley…you're not that girl. I'm that girl, so trust me when I say you're not. You're the type of person who wants a boyfriend and a relationship and flowers on Valentine's Day. And don't get me wrong, I would love that too, but I'm willing to settle for less. You shouldn't be."

I sighed, "I know I'm not that girl and you aren't either. Don't convince yourself that you are because you'll find someone who deserves you."

"Okay, we're not talking about me now. Go back to you," she urged me.

"Anyway, I don't want a relationship right now. I can't explain the reason because, truthfully, I don't know why. I'm just scared, so he realized the only way we could be anything was through 'having fun'."

She groaned, "I don't like it."

"Ashley…"

"No Miley. I'm your older sister and I'm supposed to be watching out for you and I really don't like the whole 'casual relationship' lifestyle for you."

"I promise that he's a good guy!" I exclaimed. I really needed her to understand and support me.

"I don't care if he is the best guy in the world. I still wouldn't like it. You should be committed or at least exclusive," she argued back.

"You know that I don't trust people; you don't either. I just need to know that he won't hurt me because he's not like the other guys I've dated and been with. I could see forever with him and that scares the shit out of me."

Ashley didn't say anything for a minute. She just sat there immersed in her thoughts while I anxiously waited to see what else she had to say about what I had confided in her. Finally she did speak up again, "Can you at least tell me who the guy is so I can keep an eye out for him?"

"I can't…" I said slowly. "I really don't want anyone knowing about us yet."

She sighed, "Just be careful, okay? I know how quickly you fall in love and I just want you to be protected from getting your heart broken."

"Cam we please stop talking about me?" I pleaded. "I've got twenty-five minutes before I have to get back. How is your love life?"

"Now that's an interesting question…" she said slowly.

"Oh, and why is that?"

"I did meet a guy. Well I've known him forever, but we had dinner together the other day and it was really nice. I really like him, but he just got out of a bad relationship so I don't know what he thinks of me, you know? I don't want to force him into anything that he isn't ready for."

A lot of this seemed vaguely familiar, but I couldn't figure out exactly why. "Who is it?"

"Kevin…Kevin Johnson. Miles, I know that you hate his brother and stuff, but he is a really good guy. Plus, you love Joe and Kevin always loved you growing up. You were like his little sister."

"No, it's great!" I exclaimed. I did still love Kevin and if he and Ashley got together, it would be great. The two of them would be perfect for each other. My plan for the summer would be to just keep them together.

"Okay…I really like him Miles. More than I've ever liked anyone before."

"Well then this is big."

"Yeah, it is. I'm a little scared to tell Zac," she laughed.

"Oh please, you trample all over him. He wouldn't be able to stop you from doing anything."

"True, true. It's you who should be scared to tell him about your boytoy. Zac is totally overly protective of you. Not that I'm not, but he caught the older brother syndrome when he was five years old."

"Well I love him, so everything is good. He can be the protective older brother as much as he wants."

The door swung open and in walked Vanessa and Zac. She was cracking up while Zac had a scowl on his face.

"They were so cute!"

"No they weren't! Annoying fourteen year old twits," he said.

I giggled, "Since when do you use the word twit? That's so British."

"She's right you know. Hey Ness, my brother is going to be a Brit. Do you think you'll still love him after that?"

She shrugged, "I think I'll be able to. But I don't know…Americans have this quality about them that I like."

"You know, I can hear you guys talking about me."

"And yet you're not trying to stop us," I said with a smile. "So what happened to make you start calling people 'twits'?"

Zac remained quiet and broody so his girlfriend spoke up. "So we were on our little picnic, right? We were actually having a great time until this group of teenage guys walked up to us. Oh, and when I say teenagers they were like fourteen."

"Okay…this seems to be getting interesting."

"Anyway, they apparently had a crush on me or something so they were standing five feet away, throwing me glances every couple of minutes. Zac got annoyed."

Ashley looked confused, "That's it?"

"Oh no," Zac cut in. "Then they actually came over and tried to convince her that she would be better off with one of them then with me."

"Oh boy," I said, trying my very best not to laugh no matter how much I wanted to.

Zac was still in a bad mood, but the three of us couldn't help but laugh. "Are all boys like that at fourteen? I swear I was a good kid."

Ashley scoffed, "Uh, no. You were horrible! All you cared about were girls, sports, and Miley. Oh, and me when I fit in well with your life."

"What?" he gasped. "I was not like that at all."

The twins started bickering like they were back in junior high. I just stood there wondering how they became my siblings when we were nothing like. I still loved them all the same though.

Vanessa stole away from them and walked over to me. "Hey Miley?"

"Yeah?"

"How is Taylor doing? I mean, do you know at all?"

I sighed, "Ness, I don't really know. He seems fine to be honest, but I don't know him well enough to know for sure."

Vanessa was quiet for a minute. I figured that she was contemplating what to say next.

"He blames me for leaving. I just left him and Demi all alone with my horrible mother."

"What are you talking about," I asked slowly.

"Remember how I came here when I was twelve?"

"Yeah…"

"And they didn't come here until _they_ were fourteen?" she said.

"Oh…I remember realizing that a little while after they showed up freshman year. But I never asked about it because I could tell that it was a touchy subject."

"I don't think that Demi ever blamed me, she understood that I didn't have a choice in the matter. When our parents divorced the judge let my dad have full custody of me because we had always been really close. Unfortunately, since my mom fought to have custody of all of us, the judge gave her custody of Demi and Taylor. My mom is horrible, but she's a fantastic actress. She fooled the judge into thinking that she was the best mom in the world; that's how she was able to get the twins.

"Then my dad got transferred out here and he had no choice but to leave them completely with my mom. Taylor was so mad. He wouldn't talk to me for months on end and then when he finally did start again he barely talked. He was probably lying to me the whole time too."

"But as he got older he must have understood it more. Right?"

"I hoped that he would," she sighed. "But by the time my dad finally got full custody of them again, he was fourteen and in his rebellion stage. He didn't care about his older sister. In fact, I think that the only thing he cared about besides his social life and the things that came along with it was Demi."

"I've noticed that. Taylor is usually a total asshole, but when it comes to Demi he is the perfect brother. It's almost strange," I laughed.

She giggled, "It definitely is, but that's just Taylor being Taylor. I've tried to keep an eye out for him but it's hard; he doesn't necessarily let me in. And then Demi is close to the both of us so it's hard for her to clue me in on Taylor because she feels like she's betraying him. It's just this huge circle or triangle…or something along those lines. Maybe it's a square. I don't know."

"I think that you should just keep trying with him. Eventually he's going to have to deal with you on a larger scale if you keep confronting him. He'll probably get extremely annoyed with you, but in the long run it will all work out."

"I hope so. Thanks Miley. You might be two years younger than me, but you're one hell of a friend."

I chuckled, "No problem."

We both turned when we heard a knock at the front door and the voice that followed it. "Knock, knock," Demi said, peaking her head around the door.

"Hey Dem," I smiled and Vanessa echoed me.

"Ness!" Demi exclaimed once she noticed her sister. Her smile grew even bigger if that was possible.

"Hi honey. What's up?"

"Oh right…Miles, practice is in five minutes. I wasn't sure if you were paying attention to the clock or not."

My eyes widened, "Lunch is over already? Whoa, okay. We better go."

"Bye guys," Vanessa smiled, "and Miley, thank you again."

Demi leaned into me and fake-whispered in my ear. "Why is she thanking you?"

I did the same to her. "It's a secret."

"You suck," she pouted.

I just rolled my eyes and laughed. I called over to Ashley, who was surprisingly still bickering with Zac. "Bye Ash! Thanks for the talk!"

She pulled herself away from the argument just long enough to wave me away.

"And with that, we're gone. Let's go Demetria."

"I've told you a million times, don't call me Demetria," she growled.

"Oh come on _Demetria_, chill out," Vanessa teased her.

Demi narrowed her eyes, "I'm leaving. Goodbye."

She walked out ahead of me while Vanessa and I started cracking up. It was so easy to get under her skin. "Okay, I really need to go. Bye Nessa."

"Bye sweetie," she smiled. I followed Demi until we both got to where we were practicing.

"Are you done with the name-calling yet?"

"It's not name-calling if it's your own name Demetria," I smirked.

"That's it. Kylie!" she exclaimed.

Kylie walked over to us and replied, "Yeah Demi?"

"I want a new partner for the rest of the day."

"Sorry Dem, you're stuck with Miley."

"See, you're stuck with me. Deal with it."

She glared at me, but didn't fight Kylie on the manner. Want to know one of the best things about having a best friend? Annoying the hell out of them.

**_~xoxo~_**

**Tell me what you think?**

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	7. Chapter 7

**I'm sorry this took so long to get out. Truthfully, this chapter took forever to write. No inspiration. :\**

**Disclaimer: I don't really own anything.**

**_~xoxo~_**

I leaned against one of the trees down by the lake, idly waiting until Miley showed up. The place was secluded enough so I thought that no one would be able to stumble across us, but the view was amazing.

I heard the sound of footsteps walking across the woodsy ground. Turning, I saw Miley appear from around the trees.

"Sorry I'm late," she said, a little bit breathless, "I had to ditch Selena and Demi. They didn't understand what I could possibly be doing alone before dinner."

I chuckled, "No problem. I wasn't waiting too long." I walked over to her and kissed her lightly on the lips.

She smiled, "Hi."

"Hi. How was practice?"

"It was good. We're halfway done with our routine. It's kicking my ass though; I've never been so sore in my life."

I looked at her with a smile, "Do you need a massage?"

"You would be willing to give me one?" she asked skeptically.

"Of course I would. I'm still trying to get your good side, remember?"

Miley giggled, "I forgot all about that. Well then, I think that I'll take you up on your offer. Every girl needs a massage from her boyfr- I mean, from someone every once and a while."

I caught her slip up with her words, but I didn't say anything about it. Addressing it would just make her feel uncomfortable; that wasn't something I was aiming for. But I wasn't going to lie, it did make me smile. "Why don't you sit down on that bench over there?"

"Bench? What the heck is a bench doing in the middle of the woods?"

"I don't know; it looks like someone made it. But who cares? Just sit on it."

She sighed, "Fine."

I followed her over to the homemade bench and then helped her onto it. I stood behind her and lifted my hands to her shoulders. She let out a sigh of comfort when I started to rub the tension out of her shoulders. "So what's up?"

"Hm?" she moaned.

"Well," I said carefully, "you asked me to meet you here and you made it seem urgent. Not to mention, you're pretty quiet today."

"Oh…that."

"Yes, that," I chuckled. "So what's going on with you?"

Miley didn't say anything for a little while. In fact, I was getting worried that she had just decided to ignore my question, until she finally did speak up. "I talked with Ashley the other day."

"Oh yeah? What about?"

"You. Well not you specifically, but me being with someone. Not that she knows that someone is you; I didn't have the guts to tell her anything big, but she made me think about a lot of stuff…"

I continued to massage her shoulders and asked, "Like what kind of stuff?"

She sighed, "What would you say if, right now, I asked you to be my boyfriend?"

I was shocked. I didn't expect her to get to this point for at least another couple of weeks; that is if she ever got to this point. "What…?"

"If I asked you to be my boyfriend, right now, what would you do? Would you say yes?"

I still had trouble stringing words together but I was able to say, "Yeah…I would say yes. But this is all hypothetical, right?"

Miley turned around on the bench and faced me, "Maybe it's not hypothetical; maybe I'm asking you to be my boyfriend."

"Well I would say that you would really have to ask me, none of this beating-around-the-bush thing."

She rolled her eyes, "You're so difficult."

I raised my eyebrows, "So are you going to ask me or not?"

"Fine," she stated dramatically. "Nicholas Johnson, will you be my boyfriend? And if you've made me go through all of this and you say no, I'll never speak to you again, okay?"

I chuckled, "Well with a threat like that, how could I refuse?"

She playfully shoved me, "So? Is that a yes or no?"

"Of course it's a yes, babe. How could I say no?"

"I don't know…so we're doing this? Like really doing this? Together? Us?"

"If you really want to, I'm all for it. I've been for it from the start."

Miley chewed on her bottom lip nervously, "Can we still keep it a secret? I just don't want anyone else in our business yet."

"Whatever you want. But you do realize that we're going to have to tell people eventually, right?"

"I know, but for now it can be our little secret. Right?" She stood up and wrapped her arms around my neck. "It will be more fun, more exciting."

I grinned as she leaned in a placed light kisses along my neck. Then she made her way towards my jaw and eventually reached my lips. "See…this…is…much…more…exciting," she said between kisses.

"Yes, this a lot better," I groaned. I tangled my hands in her hair and pulled her closer to me. Our lips crashed together and it was the best feeling in the world. My hands moved down her body and rested at her hips.

"Well, well, well…what do we have here?"

The two of us pulled apart so fast you would have thought that our lips were dipped in white-hot lava.

"I knew something was going on between the two of you," Joe said grinning as he stepped out from behind a large tree.

"Joe! What are…what are you doing here?" Miley exclaimed. Her face had turned bright red and I could see the panic in her eyes.

"Well I had realized that Nick had disappeared and then I saw you walking into the woods all by your lonesome, I decided to follow. But I had to get away from everyone first so it took me a little while to find you guys."

"How long have you been standing there?" I asked as nicely as possible.

He shrugged, "Eh. Not too long. You lovebirds were already in the middle of your little make-out session. It's gross if you ask me."

"Well no one was asking you," I replied. "And just so you know, you're make-out sessions with your girlfriend are just as repulsive."

"Yeah, whatever. So what's going on here?"

"Nothing Joe, you can leave now," Miley said.

"Not a chance. I want to know how all of this," he gestured to the two of us, "happened. I knew that there was more to you two suddenly becoming bffs."

Miley sighed, "We just kissed and took it from there. Nothing big."

"Are you guys dating?"

I glanced at Miley and she caught my eye. I could sense her hesitance and her dread at the prospect of everyone finding out about us. I took a deep breath and replied, "Yeah. We're dating."

His eyes lit up and he looked like a kid on Christmas morning. "Really? This is great! It's about time that you guys got together again. But why are you guys keeping it a secret. You two should go tell everyone right now!"

"No!" Miley exclaimed loudly. "Don't you dare tell anyone about us. If you do, I will be pissed off and trust me, you don't want to see me pissed off."

"But why don't you want anyone to know? You're just making it harder for yourselves by keeping everyone in the dark about your relationship."

"I don't want to mess our relationship up, that's why know one can know yet. I don't care if I'm making it harder for us. No one but you is allowed to know right now. Okay?"

I knew that Joe would comply with whatever she asked of him because anyone would be scared to go against her at the moment. Her eyes were blazing and it seemed as if disagreeing with her would make all hell break loose.

"Okay…okay. I promise that I won't tell anyone."

"Thanks," she whispered quietly.

Joe walked over and wrapped his arm around her shoulders in a friendly way. "For the record, everyone would be really happy that you guys got together."

"We'll let everyone get used to you and Demi together before we drop ourselves on them."

He shrugged, "Whatever you say. I just think that you're scared."

"Excuse me-,"

"Joe, why don't you leave us along for a little while? We obviously don't get a lot of time together, so you're kind of cutting into our time." I gave him a warning glance. He sighed and retracted his hand from around her shoulders.

"I better go anyway; when I'm not around, people get suspicious."

"Thank you Joe, you know, for keeping our secret," Miley said softly.

He smiled, "Of course. If it slips out though, don't get mad."

"Joe!" we both exclaimed in alarm.

"Kidding, kidding. I promise not to say a word, but Demi is going to be pissed when she finds out you didn't tell her when it first happened."

"I'll deal with Demi when the time comes, but for now no one knows, right?"

"Yes. For the millionth time, I won't tell a soul about this newfound information that I have uncovered. Now goodbye my two lovebirds, have fun, but not too much fun. Then we would have an issue on our hands."

I groaned, "Goodbye Joe. You're not wanted here anymore."

"Fine. I'll see you guys later. Don't be late for dinner or you'll get in trouble with your friends."

He was walking away (finally) but before he was out of sight, he called out, "Don't forget to use protection!"

As soon as he was gone, I turned to my girlfriend. "I'm so sorry about Joe. I promise that I'll talk to him again."

She shrugged, "It's fine. I doubt that he'll say anything anyway. But…Nick, everything is messed up now."

"It doesn't have to be."

"But it is."

"Miley. I'm not going to let you run away from me because you're scared. You'll probably get about as far as that tree right over there," I pointed to a tree that couldn't have been any more than ten feet away, "before I catch you."

She just stood there and stared at me and I could see the wheels turning in her head and fortunately, I finally saw her give up at least a little of her fear. "Okay."

"So we agree, no running?"

"No running," she replied as sure of herself as she could.

I wrapped her in a tight hug. "Are you sure that you don't want to tell Demi? You know that she would be beyond excited about all of this."

"I'm just not ready yet," she mumbled into my shoulder.

I sighed, "Alright. We're going to have to tell people soon though; you know that right?"

"Yeah, I know."

"We should probably head back and make sure Joe doesn't say anything. The first day he finds out a secret is always when he is the most likely to spill it."

"Okay, let's go."

Miley interlocked our hands but she still stayed glued to my side. I think she believed that if she stayed by my side, nothing would be able to tear us apart.

We finally neared the edge of the woods and she quickly detangled herself from my side. "I'll meet you over by everybody in twenty minutes. They'll guess something is up if we show up together."

Before she could walk away, I pulled her in for a kiss, which she returned with a sigh. Still, she broke the kiss before it went on for too long.

"Bye babe."

"Bye," she said softly.

I came upon my brother and Taylor chatting over by the mess hall. I was able to come into the end of whatever topic they were discussing.

"Dude, will you get me a date with your sister?"

"Excuse me? Not a chance."

"You're dating my sister! Why can't I date yours?" Taylor exclaimed.

"You and Selena…together," he cringed at the last word, "is different than Demi and I together."

Taylor looked exasperated. "How in the world is it any different?"

"Uh…guys? What's going on?"

Joe turned to me, "Finally. You can be on my side. Taylor can't date Selena, right?"

I shrugged, "I don't see why not. If he likes her, he should go for it."

My brother threw his hands up in the air in defeat, "Is it just me or is everyone pairing up lately?"

"What do you mean?" Taylor asked confused.

I quickly jumped in before Joe could let anything else slip. "Uh, he means first he and Demi got together, and then Kevin and Ashley did. Not to mention Vanessa and Zac have been together forever."

This seemed to mollify him for now, "Oh okay." He chuckled, "Now you and Miley have to get together and we'll all be paired off."

I laughed nervously, "Don't count on that happening."

"Hey boys!"

I whipped around to see an all-smiling Miley walk up to the three of us.

"Miles, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"I couldn't find Demi but I saw you guys so I decided to come over and see what was up. So…what's up?"

"Miley, you're friends with Selena. Could you ask her if she wants to go out with me?"

She scoffed, "Just ask her yourself. I'm like ninety-nine percent sure that she'll say yes. She talks about you all the time."

His eyes lit up, "Really?"

Miley giggled, "Yeah. Why don't you just go find her and ask her now? Then we can all get it out of the way and you two will be happy."

"Well do you know where she is?"

"No idea."

"Fine. I'll just go look around the camp. She has to be somewhere. Thanks Miley."

He took off in search of Selena and Miley turned to me. "Well that was eventful."

"You're like the female cupid," I winked.

She giggled, "Yeah well, I try."

I reached out and gave her hand a discreet, light squeeze. She smiled at the touch and squeezed my hand back.

Of course, Joe went and broke up the sweet moment with one of his comments, "Oh my god, you two are going to kill me with all your lovey-dovey cuteness. Seriously."

We just laughed and walked back to our cabin, all three of us. But Joe's words still rang in my head.

'Lovey-dovey cuteness'? That meant that Miley must have shown some of the lovey-dovey stuff towards me, right? Hm. Her falling in love with me was taking quicker than I thought it would.

**_~xoxo~_**

**School starts on Monday. Bleh.**

**Review?**

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	8. Chapter 8

**For those of you who read my other story, you guys know that I'm beyond busy. So sorry for the lack of updates. I'm hoping to kind of get into some sort of routine to manage everything I got myself into...anyway, I hope that you guys like the chapter!**

**_~xoxo~_**

"Hey baby," I said quietly into his ear. I started to kiss his neck and I heard him moan at the soft touch.

He slowly opened his eyes and smirked, "I think that you should wake me up this way every morning…"

"Yeah, but then it wouldn't be as special."

Nick wrapped his arms around me and pulled me onto his chest so that I was lying on top of him. He started tracing shapes on my arms and I laid my head on his shoulder. "I think that it would be special every time that you did it."

"You're being cheesy."

"But you love it," he whispered into my ear before he captured my lips in his. We stayed like that, in that exact position, for a good five minutes. His hands would move farther up my back every other minute, but other than that, things stayed the same.

As he continued to nibble my ear, I said, "Did you know that I'm really glad you're my boyfriend?"

"Well I hoped that was the case."

"You're way too full of yourself."

"It's just apart of my charm, babe."

I scoffed, "Your charm? I wasn't aware that you had any."

"You're just so funny," he said sarcastically.

I grinned and leaned in for another kiss. His hands reached for my hips and I plunged my fingers into his curly hair. A couple minutes later were interrupted by the sound of a creepy, opening door.

"You guys do know that anyone could have walked in right now, right? You're just lucky that it was me," said a familiar voice.

The both of us groaned and I rolled off of Nick and faced the intruder. "Joe, don't you know how to knock?"

"Don't you know that we _share_ this room? I have every right to enter without knocking," he shot back. "By the way, Demi was a couple steps behind me so you might want to fix up your sex hair before she gets here."

I rolled my eyes, "I do not have sex hair."

Nick laughed from the bed, "You kind of do honey. I can pass mine off as bed head, but you can't."

I gasped and raced over to the mirror and frantically tried to make my hair look presentable. "How does it look now?" I asked the two of them.

Joe shrugged, "Fine. I don't think Demi will realize that you were making out with your boyfriend two seconds before she walked into the room. Not that she would expect it or anything since she trusts that you would tell her everything new that was going on in your life."

The wheels started to turn in my head and the panic began to set in. He was right, I wasn't thinking before, I wasn't thinking about all the consequences that were going to occur once everyone found out. Demi was going to kill me when she found out and she would probably never trust me again. Shit.

"What the hell am I going to do?" I blurted out. Then of course I proceeded to hyperventilate (which was completely embarrassing) and Nick immediately jumped up to calm me down.

Why this hit me all of a sudden, I don't know. One second I was fine, totally and completely fine, and now I'm a mess standing in the middle of the cabin floor with my caring (and a little worried) boyfriend rubbed my backing soothingly.

I heard Nick whisper to Joe over my shoulder, "I thought you said that Demi was right behind you?"

"Well she was…sort of. Someone called her over before we got to the cabin so that is probably why she's not here yet."

"We can't let her see Miley like this. That would be a bad situation…"

He nodded, "Okay. Just calm her down and I'll stall Dem for a couple of minutes."

After Joe left to go outside, Nick turned his attention to me. "Are you doing okay, Miles?"

I wiped away the tears that stained my cheeks and tried my best to stop the ones that continued to fall. I hiccupped slightly and took a deep breath. "Sorry about this. I don't know what came over me…I can't believe that I'm hiding this from my best friend. What am I thinking?"

"You're thinking that you're doing your best to protect yourself and to protect our relationship. I'm sure Demi will understand. Plus, we haven't been dating for that long, so it's not like you kept it from her for long."

"That's true," I sniffed, wiping away the last my tears. "She can't get too mad. After all, since she is my best friend, she will understand, right?"

"Right," he smiled. "Everything is going to work out."

"Are you good now?" he asked concerned. He took is thumb and rubbed away the last remnants of my freak out off of my face.

"Yeah. Thank you Nick," I said softly.

He wrapped me in a tight hug and whispered back, "You're welcome Miley Ray."

"Joe! Seriously, what's going on?" Demi exclaimed as she pushed her way past her boyfriend and into the cabin that they all shared.

"Nothing babe! I just wanted to know the exact moves you guys are going to do in your dance, that's all."

She gave him a weird look and then just shook her head. Then she turned to me and frowned, "Have you been crying? Are you okay?"

"I'm perfectly fine!" I said happily, while secretly masking my sadness. But at least I knew that she was a good enough friend to know when I was sad. Then again, that made me feel even guiltier to think that I haven't been trusting her with anything lately.

"Okay…" she said uncertainly. I could see how she kept her eye on me and how her agreement to drop the subject wouldn't last for long.

"So what are you doing back here?" I asked.

Realizing that I changed that subject, she grinned, "Well…since it is Saturday and Saturdays are our free days, I've decided to go for a swim in the lake. Would you like to come with me?"

"Sure! Do you mind if everyone goes?"

"Everyone as in who?"

"As in everyone. Our 'gang' if you want to call it that. Oh, and Zac, Ness, Ashley, and Kevin too of course."

"Sounds good to me. I'll get the stuff and you should get everyone together. I saw Taylor and Selena making out on the other side of the camp and I have no idea where everyone else is."

"Selena was doing what with Taylor?" Joe exclaimed. He looked as if he would be able to tear the shirt he was holding in half.

"Joe, it's no big deal. They like each other, so what?" Demi said.

"So what? So _what_? He's sticking his tongue town my little sister's throat. I have every right to want to kill him," he seethed.

I giggled, "Although I think it's beyond adorable that you are so protective over Selena, she is seventeen years old. She needs to have a life and boyfriend."

"Whatever. It doesn't mean that I have to like it," he replied stonily.

I glanced at Nick and we both shared a laugh. I was surprised that he was okay with his _twin_ sister dating his enemy; I guess that this camp had already changed us all.

**_~xoxo~_**

It only took us forty-five minutes to track everyone down and to change into our bathing suits. Demi got all of the stuff; she even managed to get a large sum of snacks from the mess hall.

I felt a pair of arms wrap around me as I walked to the edge of the lake.

"We have about a minute of alone time before we go back to being best friends hanging out in the water," my lovely boyfriend whispered into my ear.

I turned around and wrapped my arms around his neck. "Hi baby."

"When are you going to tell Demi?" he asked bluntly.

I sighed, "I don't know. Soon, probably."

"I would do it before Joe lets something slip. You know that he most likely will. What I don't understand is why you're so hesitant to tell her…"

"But if I tell her, then I obviously have to tell my _sister_ about everything and then she would have to tell Vanessa because their best friends and tell each other everything. Then Zac would find out and so on. Also, if I told Demi, I'd feel bad about not telling Selena. We may not be best friends but we have gotten pretty close to each other recently. She would probably tell Taylor and…yeah. It would be way too much."

"I get it Miles, but come on. We have to tell somebody else. Joe is getting way too much glee out of the fact that he is the only one who knows," Nick chuckled.

"Soon, I promise. Just give me a little more time, okay?" I went up on my tiptoes and gave him a peck on his lips.

He sighed into my kiss and groaned when I pulled away. "See, if we went public we could do this whenever we wanted. We wouldn't have to hide behind a tree."

"Yeah, yeah." I walked a couple steps with Nick following behind me and came upon our group already laid out on the shore.

"There you guys are!" Demi exclaimed with an exasperated smile.

I quickly scrambled for an excuse. "Yeah, I was stopped by one of the other cheerleaders, Julie. She was asking me a couple things about our routine and Nick here was sweet enough to wait for me."

"Awww…that was nice of him," Joe smirked. I could feel the death glare that Nick was giving him behind me. I had to stifle my laughter so that no one would notice.

"It was nice of him," his girlfriend agreed unknowingly. It made me feel even worse to know that she wasn't in on the inside joke.

"Yeah…it was. So is everyone here?" I asked trying to change the subject.

"Yeah! I think they were all glad to get away from everyone. Especially Zac and Kevin who are stuck watching over everyone all day. They were able to get the day off today."

"That's good," I smiled. "I need to go talk to my sister about her new boyfriend. I'll be right back."

I saw Ashley being chased into the water by Kevin. I watched as he picked her up and spun her around. The laughter that engulfed her body; it bubbled up and over and soon enough she was doubled over in laughter. He leaned over and kissed her lightly, one of those kisses that you would see in a 'perfect moment' photograph.

I was so happy for Ashley, she needed this, and she needed a guy like Kevin to keep her grounded and to keep a smile on her face. I think that Kevin needed her too. According to Nick, his break up was really bad and if he could see Ashley as someone he could spend the rest of his life with that would be fine with me.

"Hey you two. You guys look like you're still in your honeymoon phase."

My sister turned around and grinned at me. "You could say that. Glad that you finally showed up, sis."

"Hey Miley," Kevin waved.

"Hi Kevin. Are you treating my big sister well?"

"Of course!" he exclaimed while wrapping his arms around her torso once more.

"Good. She deserves it."

"So, how are you and you-know-who doing?" Ashley asked me.

I narrowed my eyes. "We're fine, but thank you for shouting it to the whole world."

She scoffed, "Only Kevin heard me and he won't tell anyone, I swear. Stop being such a drama queen."

"I'm sorry if I want to keep my relationship status a secret," I whispered/yelled over to Ashley. I quickly looked around to make sure that no one was listening and then continued our conversation. "If you really want to know, I'll tell you. We stopped the whole benefits thing and now we're dating."

Her eyes went huge and she screeched, "What?"

Everyone, and I mean _everyone_, looked over to us as Ashley shouted that. Demi called, "What's going on?"

"Nothing!" I called back. "Nothing at all."

Demi looked really suspicious. I think I had pushed the envelope way too far this time; she was bound to snap and start asking questions soon.

"Are you sure? Hushed conversations and then yelling tell me otherwise," she said and then she walked over to me. I then turned back to my idiot sister who got me into this situation.

"We'll continue this later," I said through my teeth.

She just rolled her eyes and went back to playing around with Kevin.

"Miley seriously, what the hell is going on? I know that you are keeping something from me, I can feel it and sense it and all that crap."

I suddenly became very interested in my feet and sighed. "I'm sorry Dem…I didn't mean to act like that."

"I know you didn't Miley, but you're my best friend and you're supposed to trust me with everything. As far as I know, I know almost everything about you, as do you with me. But there's something that you're not letting me in on."

"I…can't…"

"Miley!" she exclaimed, frustrated. "I know that Joe knows something too. Do you know how hard that is? To know that your boyfriend is filled in on something that your best friend is refusing to tell you?"

My features softened. Hearing her say all these things made me even more inclined to tell her as soon as possible. "It's not that I don't want to tell you…it's just I can't. It's complicated."

"Then make it uncomplicated. You know me, you know that I don't get mad that easily, but I'm telling you, right now I'm seriously pissed off."

I built up my courage and then went with it. "Fine, but can we move this away from all the staring? I don't need anyone else finding out right now."

She raised her eyebrows, "Alright. Let's head over there." She was pointing to a patch of trees about ten yards down from where we were hanging out.

We walked in silence and when we finally reached our destination, Demi turned to me. "So what's going on?"

I took a deep breath, "Okay. Nick and I started dating, for real."

I looked up at her face with hesitation. Demi was just standing there, her eyes blinking every once and a while, with her mouth wide open. She tried to speak but after a couple minutes only, "What?" came out.

**_~xoxo~_**

**Thoughts? Review, please? :)**

**follow me on twitter/ imagineyourlife**


	9. Chapter 9

**Yeah, yeah. I know this is an extremely late update. I've been busy. :P Enjoy...hopefully.**

_**~xoxo~**_

"Yeah…"

"Since when?" she asked, still processing what I had just confessed.

I shrugged, "Not long. We've been doing the whole friends-with-benefits thing for just a couple of weeks, but we started actually dating a couple of days ago."

"Why…why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I was afraid. I wanted to keep it all a secret but then Joe found out…I'm sorry. I didn't mean to keep it from you."

Demi half-smiled, "It's okay…it is still really weird though. You two were seriously mortal enemies and you're dating. It will take a little while to get used to. Is he at least a good boyfriend?"

"He's the best, I promise. He treats me well."

"I'm glad. You deserve someone like that Miles," she said softly. "You and Nick…I can definitely see it. I didn't see it before, like I would have never thought about the two of you together until now."

I giggled, "It is strange, isn't it? I never saw it, at least not in this present time. Maybe back when we were kids, but it's so weird to me now. Still, it's super normal at the same time."

"Well think about what all the kids back at school are going to say. The head cheerleader is dating the star of the rival school's soccer team. That's some drama right there."

"Oh come on. You and I both know that the rivalry between the schools is only between the sports teams. We're all actually one huge family…that is until kickoff happens."

"You do know that it isn't called 'kickoff' in soccer, right? And that is probably our biggest rivalry."

I rolled my eyes, "Cut me some slack. I don't know every single little detail about the different aspects of sports."

She laughed, "Well I don't either. That's probably why we're such good best friends."

I sighed and looked her straight in the eye. "So we're okay? You're not going to hate me forever and then we finally bump into each other at our ten-year reunion and we have to endure that horrible awkward silence, right?"

Demi smiled softly, "I love you way too much to hate you. You're my best friend. Next time, just don't keep things from me because I'm pretty damn good at keeping secrets especially if you were to ask me to. Plus, I think you and Nick are my new favorite couple."

My cheeks heated up in embarrassment. "I'm going to take that as a compliment…"

"It is a compliment! I swear. Being my favorite couple is a total honor."

"Well then thank you. I feel very honored."

She laughed and wrapped me in a hug. When we pulled apart she put her hands on her hips and looked me straight in the eye. "When you're ready, can I tell everyone that you guys are together? Please, please, please, please?"

I couldn't help but crack up at the expression on her face. It was a pleading look mixed with the puppy-dog face mixed with the laughter she was trying to hold in. "Fine. I will let you tell everyone when the time is right."

"When will 'the time be right'?"

"I don't know. I'll tell you when I want everyone to find out."

"Why can't I tell everyone now?"

"Because I'm not ready to have everyone know."

"Why?"

"Just because."

"Just because why?"

"Why are you being all pushy about this?"

"Why-oh, because I want everybody to know. And because making huge announcements is sort of my thing."

"You're so weird," I said, shaking my head.

"I love you too, Miles. But seriously, you should let me tell everyone now. There is absolutely no point in keeping it from everyone."

I sighed, "Why is it that when you say it, I feel like it makes total sense to tell everyone but when anyone else says it, I fight back?"

"Because I'm your best friend so everything I say makes sense to you. Nick, even though it's obvious that you love him-," I went to dispute that comment but she held me off, "it doesn't mean that you, with your annoying stubbornness, are going to listen to him. In fact, you'll probably be more inclined to not want to listen to him because you're so freaking obsessed with your independence."

"Thanks Demi, that made me feel so good," I said sarcastically.

She shrugged, "It's the truth. You know just as well as I do that you're not a clingy girlfriend."

"Alright, can we stop talking about me now?"

"Only if I can tell everyone that you and Nick are together."

"Are you _blackmailing_ me?" I asked incredulously.

"Something like that," she smirked.

I sighed, "Fine. Go tell everyone, but make it quick. Please don't make it into a huge ordeal."

She grinned widely and ran back to where everyone was hanging out. "Hey guys! Guess what?"

They all responded with questioning glances and a few of them asked, "What?"

"Nick and Miley are together! Like the dating kind of together!" she announced proudly.

I don't think that anyone knew what to say at first. Nick and Joe looked surprised that Demi had told everyone, Taylor, Selena, and Kevin looked shocked, Zac looked like he wanted to have 'that talk' with my boyfriend, and Ashley and Vanessa were grinning.

Everyone started talking at once and I soon felt overwhelmed by everyone around me. People were coming from all sides and I felt like screaming. This is what I wanted to avoid. I loved each and every one of them but I also wanted them to understand that they should give me my space.

At least I thought that out of anyone, they would be the ones to understand the best.

"Guys!" I heard someone yell over the crowd. They all turned, including myself, at the sound of the voice. Joe cleared his throat.

"Yeah…now that you're all quiet, Nick will talk to you now."

"Wait…what?" Nick asked bewildered. Joe gave him a nod and a little shove forward. He sighed, "So Miley and I are together…"

"No, duh!" Nessa exclaimed. "How did it happen? A couple weeks ago you guys couldn't stand each other!"

I stepped forward and continued the answering their questions, "We just talked a lot. We talked through all our issues and we ended up kissing and yeah…it just went from there. It's still new though."

Ashley and Vanessa both squealed and ran over to me (Selena did as well, but no squealing was involved on her part). They started jumping up and down just like typical girls while I just went with the motions. I loved them and I really started to loosen up again. I giggled and pulled Demi in with us who had been standing off to the side and smiling.

Over all of this I could hear Nick whisper to the other guys, "Are girls always like this?"

Taylor chuckled, "Of course they are, especially when it comes to my sister."

"Which one?"

"Vanessa, obviously. Even though they're all rubbing off on Demi too…"

"Will you guys just shut up and come join the hug?" I giggled.

"Uh…no. Guys don't do hugs," Zac said.

"Come on big brother. You know you want to," I smiled.

He rolled his eyes but wrapped his arms around all of us anyway. The other guys were too chicken to join in. As soon as we all parted, Nick walked over to me and wrapped his arms around my torso.

He whispered into my ear. "So I see you decided to tell everyone."

"Yeah," I whispered back. "Sorry for not warning you beforehand. Demi somehow convinced me that telling everyone was the best thing for the both of us."

"Well that's Demi for you," he chuckled. "I'm glad that you convinced you though."

"Me too," I smiled up at him.

"What are you two whispering about?" Demi asked suspiciously. "I have a strong feeling that you guys are talking about me."

I rolled my eyes, "Who else would we be talking about?"

She winked, "Just checking."

I giggled, but then turned around when I felt someone put their hand on my shoulder. "Hey Nick, do you mind if I steal my little sister away for just a minute?"

"Not at all," he smiled. "It will be good to get rid of her for a couple of minutes."

I smacked his chest. "Take that back or you won't be kissing me anymore."

He sighed dramatically, "If you say so. I take it back."

I leaned in and kissed him on the lips. I heard various whistles and catcalls echo from around our little spot. We pulled apart slowly and then I flashed him a grin before I walked away with Ashley.

"So Nick Johnson, huh?"

"Yeah…" I blushed.

"Good choice. I approve."

"You do?" I asked hopefully. Obviously, I cared what my family thought, considering the last time Nick and I were together didn't go over so well.

"Of course. Nick is a really good kid, even if he has been a total asshole to you, he has always been very sweet. And the way he looks at you…that's love right there."

"Please don't talk about love right now, we're not there yet."

She smiled softly, "You will be soon, I can tell."

I shook my head, "I just can't go there. I'm afraid to get too attached to him because what if one day he decides that I'm not good enough and he just leaves?"

"Well then we go egg his car," Ashley said nonchalantly.

I looked at her in disbelief. "Egg his car?"

"Fine…we can eat a whole bunch of ice cream and watch sad movies too if you really want to."

I started laughing until tears were coming out of my eyes. She just stood there with a giant smile on her face and waited until I calmed down. "You are the strangest person that I have ever met in my life."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

I giggled, "I love you so much."

"I love you too little sister. Just remember that I'm here for you, especially to convince you that you're totally and completely in love with Nick Johnson."

"Good luck with that."

"Oh, you don't think that I'll be able to convince you?"

"No, I don't."

She got a sneaky smirk on her face and before I knew it, I was being pushed into the cold water. It rushed past my ears and then my face broke the surface. I could hear several gasps and a whole lot of laughing. I scowled and looked down at my wet shorts and t-shirt. I was just thankful that I was wearing my bathing suit underneath.

"Do you believe that I'll convince you now?"

"Ashley Michelle Robison…I'm going to kill you," I stated in a tone that made her eyebrows go up. She backed up slowly as I pulled myself out of the salty water.

"Uh…Miley. You really don't want to come any nearer to me."

"Oh, I think I do," I said with a smirk and then I chased after her. Thankfully for me, I was faster than her (probably from the cheerleading workouts) so I grabbed onto her arm and pulled her down into the water.

Unfortunately, just because I was stronger than her did not mean that she wasn't strong. I fell into the cold water once again, falling on top of my laughing sister.

Reaching the surface, I spit out the water from my mouth and spluttered, "You suck, you know that?"

"You started it."

"I did not."

"Yeah, you challenged me."

Nick walked over to the two of us, cracking up at the sight of our dripping wet bodies. "Do you need some help?" he asked, while chuckling he reached his hand out to me.

I raised my eyebrow and took his hand. But instead of pulling myself up like he thought I was going to do, I yanked him in instead.

"Oops," I said innocently as soon as he came back up.

He tackled me and soon enough all three of us were having a full-out splashing war. Everyone else must of realized the fun we were having because the next thing I knew, they were jumping in too.

"You got me all wet," he whispered seductively into my ear as he swam up from behind me.

"Why do I think that had two different meanings?"

"Maybe because it did." He slowly moved his hands up my thighs and placed his lips on my neck. I sighed at the touch and molded my body into his. I accommodated his hungry kisses by gently bending my neck to the side.

I whispered, "You do realize that everyone can see us right?"

He shrugged, "So?"

"So…that means my brother can see us."

Nick groaned audibly, "Oh."

"Yeah…"

I heard a cough and a splash come from somewhere behind the two of us, and I turned to find Zac watching over us with raised eyebrows.

"Johnson."

"Hey Zac…" he said sheepishly.

"Why don't you keep your hands so that they're in my sight at all times and then we won't have a problem."

"Of course. Hands where you can see them, got it."

My older brother nodded and slowly waded away.

I giggled, "Sorry about him."

He waved it off, "He's just being a good brother. Like Joe with the whole Selena and Taylor thing."

"So you're okay that everyone knows?" I asked quietly. "It just sort of happened."

He wrapped his arms around me, "I'm really glad that everyone knows. Even if I now have to deal with your overprotective brother."

I kissed him softly on the lips. "You're really making it hard not to fall in love with you."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Good."

And then he kissed me. And damn…it was really, really hard not to fall in love right then and there.

_**~xoxo~**_

**Sooooo...what did you think? If you hated it, just say so. But I hope that you like it. The next chapter is not even written yet, but I'll work on it this weekend.**

**Homecoming all this week! Woooo! Today was 80's day and it was fun. I got really dressed up. Haha. So anyway, we're scrambling to get our float and skit done and then we have to get ready for the game on Friday. Plus I have water polo...which we won our game today. It was fun. :)**

**Enough with my rambling about stuff you guys don't care about. Review?**

**follow me on twitter/ imagineyourlife**


	10. Chapter 10

**And I'm back with another update. Sorry it took so long. :)**

**By the way...GIANTS ARE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES! WOOOOHOOOOO! Haha, as you can tell I'm a huuuuge fan. In fact I'm going to all the San Francisco home games. Wish my boys luck. :D**

_**~xoxo~**_

I was walking with Demi after cheer practice at lunch. We were laughing about something (I wasn't even sure where the conversation had gotten to now, I lost track after ten minutes), while we both grabbed a tray and began loading them up with food.

"Hi ladies," Joe said coolly as he grabbed a tray of his own and followed his girlfriend down the line.

"Hey Joe," I smiled and grinned even more when I saw him kiss my best friend sweetly on the lips. They were adorable.

My already huge smile was made even bigger as I saw _my_ equally wonderful boyfriend sitting on the grass. He looked so happy just laughing and sitting with his friends. His adorable dimples made me fall head over heels in love. And yes, I've decided that I do love him. I just don't know if I'm going to tell him quite yet.

I left Joe and Demi alone to make out by the lunch line and I walked over and sat down next to Nick. "Hey boyfriend."

"Hi Miles," he grinned and then kissed my cheek. He took his arm and wrapped it around my shoulders and I leaned in, breathing in and feeling totally content.

Because I knew him so well, I could tell that he was eyeing my plate. I nudged it towards him, "Want a French fry?"

His eyes lit up. "Yes please!" Then he opened his mouth like I was supposed to feed it to him or something.

I rolled my eyes, but picked a couple of them up anyway and plopped it into is awaiting mouth.

"Thank you," he said with his mouth full. "They're yummy."

I giggled and wiped a few of the crumbs that had gathered on his chin away. "You're so cute."

"I know."

"Of course you'd be cocky enough to agree with me."

"What? You want me to lie and say that I'm not cute at all? I'd think that you would want your boyfriend to be able to tell the truth; liars don't make good boyfriends."

"Being a liar and being cocky are two completely different things," I said knowingly.

"Says you."

"Says everyone."

"Oh, so now you know what _everyone_ in this whole entire world says?"

"You're impossible," I said while rolling my eyes.

Nick got up suddenly and said, "Okay, let's go for a walk."

"I need to eat!" I exclaimed.

"Eat fast then, I want some alone time with you," he said so sweetly that I wanted to forget about my food.

But I didn't skip the meal because I have had problems with food in the past and I didn't need to start that again. After I had painstakingly eaten every single bite, I placed my hand in his and he pulled me up. His arm went back to its usual place around my waist and we walked off aimlessly, just enjoying each other's company.

I took a deep breath. "I need to tell you something."

"And what would that be?"

"I don't know if I want to tell you or not. You are going to make fun of me, I know it."

I knew that he was curious. "Come on, tell me."

I sighed, "Okay. Remember that bet we made a little while ago?"

His smile was slowly growing wider. "Yeah…"

"What was it?"

"I bet that you would fall in love with me by the end of the summer." He smirked, "Have I already won the bet?"

"Maybe."

"Maybe?"

"Are you really going to make me say it?"

"Of course. I wouldn't have it any other way," he replied smugly.

I didn't say anything for a minute. Instead, I looked up into his soft, brown eyes and took his hands in mine. "Nicholas Johnson, I love you."

His smile took of his entire face and he kissed me softly on the mouth. Our lips fused together and I never wanted to leave this moment. We finally pulled apart and he put his forehead on mine. "For the record, I love you too."

We had reached 'our' spot, the one that we had actually gotten together and I turned to him, "So, you have to hold up your end of the bargain now. I admitted that I loved you, so now you need to tell me why you pushed me away all those years ago."

He sighed and guided me to the makeshift bench that was placed in our area. "I don't know where to start…"

"Well, you said you did it to protect me. Was that true?"

"Yeah. Well, to be more exact, I did it to protect your relationship with your family."

"I could have dealt with them, Nick. Sure, they were really upset but they would have come around eventually," I paused. "Wait, are you saying that you pushed me away because you didn't think we'd make it?"

"No, that's not what I mean. And no Miley, you would not have been able to deal with them. They're your parents and I know that they piss you off sometimes, but you can't help but love them. That's just who you are. Being with me and knowing that your parents hated it, that would have killed you."

"I would have dealt with it," I said again with more force.

He sighed, "Anyway, I know you better than anyone, that's just a fact. I knew that you would never let me go because you are extremely stubborn, not that I wanted you to, but needed to."

"Nick-," I interrupted, but he didn't let me talk.

"Let me finish and then you can talk."

I nodded and motioned for him to continue.

"We were what? Fourteen? And it already sucked enough that our parents had started to hate each other over the years and that whenever I was over at your house they would make it obvious that they hated me, but then they found out we were dating and you know how both our parents flipped. You know I don't care about my parents, I don't give a shit about what they think of me, but you care about yours.

"Some days you might think that you hate them, that they're the worst parents in the world, but then they come home from one of their business trips and everything is okay again; at least until they leave again. I really didn't want that to change for you; I didn't want your relationship with them to be like my relationship with my parents."

He chuckled quietly, "Making you hate me was easy; I know exactly how to push all our buttons. It was hard to be away from you when I was used to seeing you all the time. Then I realized that I could still see you, I just had to be an annoying ass."

"But why now?" I finally asked. "Why is it that you finally decided I'm a big girl and can deal with my parent's thoughts?"

He shrugged, "Two reasons. The first being that you are almost four years older than you were, so I think that you can handle it better. And second, we were closer this summer. You came to me without me having to explain all this to you beforehand."

I couldn't decide what to feel at that moment. Many emotions flooded through me.

Anger. Love. Anger. Confusion.

Anger.

Anger.

Anger.

So I decided to go with anger.

"What gives you any right to think you know what's best for me? You didn't even give me a chance to try and handle my parents! You decided in your head what was going to happen before anything even had the chance to happen."

"I thought that I knew what was best for you."

"Well that's the thing. You _thought_ that you knew. But it's obvious that you didn't, you know why? Because you do not know me at all."

I could tell that he was getting angry now. Up until now, he had been trying his best to keep his cool but Nick was getting frustrated.

"Miley," he said slowly, "I think that it's _obvious_ that I know you a little better than you give me credit for."

"I wanted to be with you. I know that we were young, maybe too young to actually be in love, but you should have let me make that decision on my own. You should have realized that I was strong enough to have a say in what was right for our relationship."

"I was trying to protect you!" he yelled.

"I already told you I could handle my parents! I've had to deal with them and their crap for seventeen years, so I think that I would have gotten through them hating my boyfriend."

"I really don't get why you're so mad. I did it to protect you, even if you don't like what I did, I did it with your best interests at heart."

"So now I'm overreacting?"

He looked at me for a moment and then nodded. "Yeah, I do think you're overreacting."

"Well that's just wonderful!" I exclaimed sarcastically, throwing my arms up in the air.

He took a step back, looking alarmed. "Seriously, calm down. If you want to be mad, fine, but you know what? I really did think that I was helping you and if that doesn't count for something, then I don't know what does."

I think what he was saying finally got through my head because the anger died down a little, but only a little.

I did understand where he was coming from. I got that he was trying his best to protect me and that he thought what he was doing was good for me, blah…blah…blah. It didn't stop me from being upset with him. Maybe if I had found this out sooner, like three years ago, then things would be different.

I had grown up a lot since eighth grade and I think although he realized that, he was still stuck in the past. He thought he knew me and yeah, he did, or he does…I haven't quite figured that out yet, but he hasn't truly known me in a long time. I'm a completely different person now.

"Nick, I think there's more to what you're telling me?"

"What do you mean?" he asked confused.

"I mean that you trying to protect me from my parents…and therefore trying to protect me, but you were obviously trying to protect yourself too. I just want to know from what."

"I was trying to protect _you_, Miley, you. Not me."

"You can keep on telling yourself that."

"Why can't you just get it through your head! My god. Yeah, okay, maybe I was young and wasn't ready for a relationship as serious as ours, but you have to believe me when I tell you that I did it to protect you." His voice was full of pleading and the need for me to believe him that I couldn't help but just give in.

I didn't give in a lot, just enough to let the fight in my voice go out. "I think that we need a break…"

"Excuse me?"

"I think this is just too much for me right now."

"Miley, we _just_ started dating. We can't already be on a break."

I looked him in the eyes and gave him a sad smile. "I really do love you Nick and I do believe that you were trying to protect me, but at the same time it has made me realize that I shouldn't be depending on anyone right now."

He groaned, "Fine. Then I guess we're done."

"No! That's not what I'm saying. I just a couple of days to figure things out…I'm not really upset, at least not as upset, I promise. I really need to think about things."

Nick just shook his head and walked away from me angrily. I sighed and could feel the tears coming to my eyes. I wasn't expecting my day to go that way at all. Things were supposed to be perfect; I was going to tell him that I loved him and we would have a nice afternoon and now everything is messed up.

I wasn't going to take back anything that I said. I think that he should have talked with me before he decided that he was going to be a hero and 'protect' me.

I sighed sadly and slowly walked back to the camp. Right as I emerged from the thicket of trees, Demi bombarded me with questions. "What the hell happened? Nick stormed over to us, said that you were a bitch, then left."

"He said what?" I exclaimed.

"Well…he didn't actually say that you were a bitch, because he loves you and would never say that and actually mean it, but he said stuff along those lines. So…what happened?"

"We…kind of split up I guess. I just wanted a break, but he took that as us being done." I shrugged, "Whatever. It doesn't matter."

She looked at me sadly, "He told you about why he broke up with you four years ago…"

I looked at her shocked, "How…how did you know?"

"Nick told Joe and Joe told me a couple days ago. I would have told you, but, you know, I couldn't."

"Do you think I'm wrong for being mad at him?"

"No honey, I don't think you're wrong. I'm surprised that you guys broke up because of it, but you have every right to be mad."

I sighed, "I need to go for a walk or something. Can you tell Kylie that I'm sick?"

"Sure…are you going to be okay?"

"I'll be fine. I'll see you later Dem."

I gave her a smile but as I walked away, my vision went blurry and it took all my emotional strength not to break down right there.

All of a sudden, I saw Nick walking in the distance. I froze and just stood watching him for a couple of minutes. His head was down and his hands were stuffed in his pockets. Even from the distance I was looking at him from, I could see that his eyes were red and puffy.

Unexpectedly, he turned and our eyes locked. It seemed like we were staring at each other forever, but in fact, it was only a couple of seconds. Just as I was about to make a move towards him, he walked away from me. Nick just kept walking until I couldn't see him anymore.

I brushed the tears away that landed on my cheeks, but that didn't stop the ones falling from my eyes.

I was scared that I would run into Nick if I kept walking around the camp, so instead I headed straight for our cabin. I knew that he would hate being cooped up in a room when he was upset, so I didn't have to worry about running in to him there.

Right before I reached our door, I heard my name being called out. I turned around, hoping it was Nick, but instead I was face-to-face with my ex-boyfriend.

"Lucas?"

"Hey! I didn't know that you were going here!"

"I kind of go here every year," I laughed softly.

"Right…it's my first year so I forgot about that."

"Why haven't I seen you around before? And why didn't I know you were coming?" I asked.

"Well I wasn't planning on coming, but my grandma died a couple weeks ago so my mom thought that coming to the camp might take my mind off of things."

"Oh my gosh…" I reached out and lightly touched his arm. "I'm so sorry Luke. I know you were close with her."

He smiled softly, "It's alright. It's hard, but I got here this morning and things are already a little better."

"I'm glad. So you're here all summer?"

"Yeah, that's my plan," he paused. "Are you okay? Have you been crying?"

I brushed it off. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

"Miley, come on. I know things have been rocky between us since the break up, but you can tell me anything. I hope you know that."

"Well…I just broke up with my boyfriend, whatever though. It's no big deal."

His eyes went wide, "Boyfriend? I didn't know…um, what happened?"

"It's a long story. I kind of just need to lie down, if you don't mind."

"Oh of course. I'll find you later though, is that okay?"

"Definitely. We have a lot to catch up on. I'll see you later Luke," I smiled.

He nodded and walked away while he waved to me. I opened the door that led into my room and closed it silently behind me.

My life just got a whole lot more complicated.

**_~xoxo~_**

**Review? I'll love you forever. :)**

**follow me on twitter/ imagineyourlife**


	11. Chapter 11

**Happy late Thanksgiving to anyone in the States. :)**

_**~xoxo~**_

"You messed up again, Miley. What's going on in your head? Your head isn't in the performance!" Kylie exclaimed after I had messed up for the seventh time. I usually had the routine down by the second time; so needless to say, my coach was surprised at my lack of a good performance.

"It's nothing…I'm just off today I guess."

She looked at me sympathetically and gently pulled me away from the rest of the girls. "Miley, be straight with me. What's going on with you?"

I sighed, "My boyfriend and I broke up. I guess I'm just taking it harder than I thought I would."

"Oh sweetie, I'm sorry. I don't usually do this, but we only have fifteen minutes of practice left anyway, why don't you go take a shower or something. You could take your mind off things."

"Are you sure that's okay?" I asked worriedly. Just because I was going through some stuff, I didn't want the rest of the team to suffer.

She just waved my question off. "Yeah…I was going to let everybody go early anyway. You can just get a head start."

"Thanks Kylie," I said. I think that I really needed someone on my side for a little bit. Nick and I had been broken up for three days and our cabin was definitely awkward. We weren't speaking and then everyone else tried his or her best to stay out of it.

Even my best friend was trying to stay neutral. No, she's my best friend not his and Demi should be one hundred percent on my side. I tried not to bring it up too much; she obviously didn't want to talk about it.

So I couldn't even talk to my best friend about it and the only other option was my sister and Vanessa, but they weren't always there. They tried to be though, but they had lives too.

After I had got into the shower, I quickly washed up and then got out. I got dressed and was back outside just as Demi was getting back. "Hey Miley…"

"Hi."

"That practice was pretty tough," she said trying to make conversation.

"Or I just sucked today."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, everyone has their off days. You'll be back and better than ever soon enough."

"I hope so or else I'm pretty much screwed, right?"

"This thing with Nick…it will all blow over eventually. You're strong Miles, you're going to be okay."

I rolled my eyes, "Oh, so you're on my side now? I thought that because you're dating Joe, Nick's brother, you didn't want to be on 'either side'"

"I didn't mean it like that. I'm always on your side, no matter what. It's just that I would wait until you and Nick were in an actual full-blown argument to officially take your side."

I really had to refrain from saying something snarky to her. She was totally my best friend and I understood what she was saying, but she really needed to work on her friendship skills.

"It's fine, whatever." At that time, Luke had walked up to us. Demi didn't trust him, when I first told her that he was at the camp her immediate thought was that he was trying to get back together with me.

Even if that was true, it wasn't like I wanted to be with him, so everything was good.

"Hey Miley," he said cheerfully to me. Then he saw my best friend. "And…Demi."

"It's amazing to see you too Lucas."

"I heard you're dating a Johnson now. What a great catch," he said sarcastically. I rolled my eyes. Here they go again. Every second of the time I dated Luke, he and Demi were like this, always at each other's throats. Demi didn't really stand up to a lot of people, but Lucas was definitely the exception.

"And I've heard that you've managed to sleep with have the girls in our grade since you and Miley broke up," she shot back. Great, now she wasn't going to go down without a fight. This was going to get ugly.

"Wow, what a good comeback."

"At least mine was better than yours. I know, why don't you stop stalking Miley and go back to your pathetic life."

I figured that I had better step in and stop this argument before it got way out of control, "Okay, that's enough. Demi, you go inside and take a shower and Luke, you can come with me. And then, you guys need to say as far away from each other as possible. Got it?"

"Fine," Demi mumbled. "See you later Miley."

As she walked into our cabin, I rounded on Luke. "What the hell are you doing? Haven't I told you a million times to not start things with Demi?" I smacked him hard on the chest.

"Jeez! Sorry! It's not my fault that we don't get along."

"Well maybe if you didn't start something with her every time you guys crossed paths, you two could maybe get along."

"But probably not. She hates me."

"Well I can tell that the feeling is mutual."

He shrugged, "Sorry."

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah, I'm sure you are. Come on, let's go."

I pulled him along the camp. We passed the soccer players (unfortunately) and as we walked by, Nick simply stared at my ex-boyfriend and I and glared at the two of us. I swear that I thought he was about to reach out and punch Luke in the face.

Lucas looked confused and I just sighed. As soon as we were out of their earshot, he turned to me. "So I see you and Nick are still fighting, huh?"

"Yeah, but things are a little different now."

"How so?"

"Well, he's kind of my boyfriend, or ex-boyfriend I guess, now."

He just stared at me, blinking incessantly. Oh, and his mouth was wide open. It was one of those exaggerated moments that you would totally expect to see on a dramatic television show.

"Yeah…weren't expecting that, were you?"

"No, I…wasn't. Should I be giving you a congratulations or a sorry?"

"I'll have to get back to you on that. Nick and I are really complicated at the moment. I think we're kind of broken up, but I'm not totally positive."

"And it probably doesn't help that you're hanging out with me."

She shrugged, "Probably not, but you're my friend and I have every right to hang out with you."

"Okay…good."

"So, how have you been Luke? Has life been treating you well?"

"For the most part it's been good, I guess. I missed you though," he said with a hopeful smile.

"Don't go there," I laughed.

"Why not?" he asked. I could tell that the tone of his voice was close to disappointment.

"We broke up for a reason Luke. I want you as a friend right now, nothing more."

"Oh yeah, of course Miles. I wasn't looking for anything else," he replied, a little flustered.

"How's basketball here? Is it as good as it is at school?"

"It's a lot of fun. But that reminds me; I'm supposed to have a late practice tonight that starts…about now. We'll hang out later right?"

"Yeah, sure. Just come and find me," I smiled.

He was grinning as he walked away. I sighed; I didn't want him getting his hopes up. I knew that he still liked me somewhat; Demi reminded me constantly of that. But that wasn't going to go down very well with the other people (Nick, most likely). However, it wasn't like I wanted to get back together with Luke. My reason for our break up was a good one.

You know, he didn't exactly stay faithful to me. Or actually, I was never able to prove it, but I couldn't trust him anymore so I broke it off. Demi was thrilled, but the rest of school was upset that the 'hottest couple on campus' had broken up.

I shook all of these thoughts out of my head and walked back to the center of camp. I saw Demi and Joe sitting next to each other, holding hands, and then sitting around them was Nick, Taylor, and Selena. I sighed and walked over to them all slowly. "Hey guys. Do you mind if I sit down?"

Nick's immediate reply was, "Actually, I do mind."

"Nick, shut up," Demi said. "Miles, of course you can sit down. Ignore him."

Nick rolled his eyes and moved away from me. Apparently he couldn't stand being near me, his ex-girlfriend. I sighed and sat next to Selena who gave me a sympathetic smile.

"Did you finally get rid of Lucas?" Demi asked, her voice tight.

"He had basketball practice, Dem."

"Are you back together with that asshole already Miley? You sure do move fast," Nick said bitterly.

I felt the tears prick my eyes, but I didn't show any weakness. If he wanted to be a jerk and act all bitter, then that was fine. I could act the same way. In fact, I could act the same way but just a hundred times worse.

"What, do you think we're having sex or something? Because then you just must be right because apparently you're always right. I mean, we just sex it up all day long," I said sarcastically.

His face tightened up, "Well isn't that nice."

"What about you? I bet that you've already found ten girls to get into bed with you."

Joe jumped in before it went any further. "Okay you two, that's enough. Miley, Nick hasn't done anything with anyone since you two broke up."

"But-," I tried interrupting, but he wouldn't let me.

"And Nick," he said turning his attention to his younger brother, "Lucas is only friends with Miley, nothing more."

The two of us went silent. Joe sure knew how to quiet a group.

It was definitely awkward; you could probably cut the tension with a knife. Nick and I were trying to put as much distance between us as possible, which was hard because we couldn't necessarily make our little circle of friends any larger.

We all kind of immersed ourselves in our own conversations instead of talking as an entire group. Truthfully, that did help ease some of the tension and it almost got to the point where I had almost forgotten that _he_ was still there.

"So what _is_ the deal with you and Lucas Green?" Selena asked me quietly.

"Not you too…" I groaned in frustration.

"Hey, it's just a question. I can't help that I'm curious."

"We're friends, if that. We dated for about a year, but we broke up maybe three months ago."

"Why did you guys break up?" she asked curiously.

"I didn't really trust him anymore," I said with a shrug. "I don't think that he ever truly cheated on me, but that doesn't mean that he didn't have a wandering eye. I don't know…Demi never trusted him from the beginning, so I guess I should have known something was up."

"I'm sorry…aren't guys just horrible? Seriously, I don't know why girls even put up with them."

"Hey!" Taylor exclaimed, rather loudly I must say. "Sel, do you not like me anymore?"

She smiled sweetly, "You're…different. At least until you piss me off, then you become the guy in a Taylor Swift song."

"Very funny," he said sarcastically, but he was laughing anyway. "I'm going to go sit next to people who actually appreciate me."

He got up dramatically and went to sit with the guys as Demi came and sat in between Selena and I. "You know what's funny? Taylor wasn't friends with any of those guys before we got here and now look, they're the best of friends."

"Your brother is very complicated," Selena sighed.

"But you seem to love him," I said.

"Hey," she scolded, "don't go there. I don't love him."

"Sure you don't. By the way, your nose just grew a foot."

She rolled her eyes, "The two of you are going to kill me one of these days. But speaking of guys Miley, don't you think that you should talk to Nick? And by talk I mean a conversation that doesn't involve the two of you yelling at each other."

"He doesn't want to talk to me, Sel."

Demi took my hand and squeezed it. "He'll talk to you if you make him. He is being a jerk and he shouldn't be treating you this way, but you two are never going to accomplish anything unless one of you forces the other to listen."

"Fine, I'll try." I turned my attention to Nick and cleared my throat to get his attention, "Nick can we please talk? Alone?"

His head shot up at my voice but he replied, "I don't think so."

"Nicholas Johnson, I'm going to talk to you whether you like it or not and you're going to listen. Now, we can either do it here, in front of everybody, or we don't. It's up to you. I for one would rather do it in private."

He stared at me, but eventually he stood up and walked away. I figured he either wanted me to follow him or not follow him, so I went with the first option.

I can't believe that I was chasing a boy. Oh where had my independence gone?

_**~xoxo~**_

**Sorry for the late update, please review anyway. :)**

**Okay, so to be honest, I don't exactly have a writer's block with this story, but I don't really have a vision for it. So, I want all of you to tell me what you want to happen in this story. I'm sure that you guys have some suggestions. Then I'll try my best to work them all in.**

**follow me on twitter/ imagineyourlife**


	12. Chapter 12

_**So it wasn't a very fast update, but I tried. :) I hope you guys like it.**_

_**~xoxo~**_

"You walk too fast!" I exclaimed, finally catching up to Nick. He had practically speed-walked all the way to a remote part of the camp.

"Maybe I didn't want you to follow me," he said bitterly, not looking at me.

"You're acting ridiculous."

He finally turned and looked at me. His eyebrows were raised and his arms were crossed over his chest. "I think my behavior is just fine."

"Well I disagree. I know you're pissed at me, not that you really have a reason to be, but you should at least let us talk this out. You're not even giving me a chance!"

"You broke up with me Miley!"

"Actually, I didn't. I asked for a break, there's a difference Nick."

"I don't see much of a difference between the two," he mumbled.

"You are so full of yourself!" I threw my hands up in the air in frustration. "If you're going to be like this, I'm not even going to try. Have a nice life."

I heard him sigh as I was walking away and then he reached out and grabbed my arm. "Wait, just…stay."

"Why should I? It's obvious that you don't want me to. You don't want to talk to me; you don't even look at me. I'm tired of being treated this way when I obviously don't deserve it."

"Well that's up for debate…" he interrupted quietly.

I glared at him and started to walk away again. But he caught up with me and stopped me from leaving a second time. "Sorry, that was uncalled for."

"You think? Nick, you lied to me. You treated me like I was some porcelain doll who didn't have a right to make decisions for herself; that's not fair and I don't deserve that. You might think that I'm overreacting, but that hurts to know that you didn't trust me enough to consult me on your oh so amazing idea."

"And I apologized for that. What else do you want me to say Miley?"

"I don't know…"

"So you didn't like my decision, fine. Do you trust me at least?"

"I don't know! I want to, but how do I know that you're not going to do that again? Life is going to get a whole lot harder than it was three years ago. Are you sure that you are not going to want to protect me from those things too?"

"I probably will want to protect you."

"That's my point. There is no way that I'm going to let you shield me from all the hard things in life because I'll never learn if you do."

"Than I promise that I won't!"

"But you will, Nick. Do you know how I know that? Because that's who you are and I love you for it, but I can't…I can't be looking over my shoulder and double-checking everything to make sure that you're not hiding something from me."

"So where does that leave us?" he asked with a frown.

"Maybe…friends?"

"Yeah, because being just your friend is exactly what I want to be," he replied sarcastically while rolling his eyes.

I sighed, "Come on, Nick. Please don't be like this."

"Is this because you want to get back together with Lucas?"

"What?" I exclaimed wide-eyed. "No, not a chance. God, no, I swear. Luke and I are nothing more than friends."

"Right, friends. Just like you and me."

"Maybe you and Luke could be friends if you two just talked or something. He's really not a bad guy."

"Didn't he cheat on you?"

I paused, "That's…beside the point."

"So that's a yes."

"I'm not talking about that, not with you."

"You don't have to talk about it, trust me, I've already heard the story. I just don't get why you even give the guy the time of day, he doesn't deserve you."

"Will you just stop? I said that I don't want to talk about it. I have my own reasons for talking to him. You sound like Demi."

"Well she's a smart girl."

"Okay, if you're not going to let this go then I'm leaving." I started to walk away, back towards our friends. I heard Nick chuckle softly and then he was next to me again.

"Fine, we can be friends."

I raised my eyebrows, "You changed your mind?"

He sighed, "I guess. I'd rather have you as a friend than not have you at all."

"Well aren't you sweet," I giggled. "I'm glad that you finally saw the light."

He was silent for a second and then he caught me off guard by placing a long kiss right on my lips.

As soon as the kiss stopped, I yelled, "What was that for?

"I just wanted to show you want you're missing"

"You're such a jerk!" I exclaimed, but I couldn't help but smile. Nick is the only guy that would be able to get away with that.

He just smirked and walked ahead of me and stood next to his brother.

"I see that you two didn't kill each other," Demi commented.

"You thought we would have?"

She shrugged, "Kind of. The glares that you guys were giving each other were enough to kill alone."

"Whatever you say. Where did Selena and Taylor go?"

"Probably to go make out somewhere," she replied with a shrug. I saw Joe ball his hands into fists and I laughed.

"Joe, you don't seem too happy about your little sister's free time activities."

"Don't even start with that, Miles."

I just giggled because messing with Joe was probably my favorite thing to do, well besides making out with Nick.

That totally didn't just come out of my mouth…or my brain. Whatever you want to call it. The stupid jerk just had to get inside my head.

I saw a shadow pass over our group and I looked up to see my coach, Kylie, standing over us. "Hi Miley."

"Kylie! What are you doing here?"

"Are you feeling better? I don't want to interrupt you guys, especially if you're working through some stuff…"

"Oh no! It's fine," I said while standing up to meet her eye level. I was surprised at how accommodating she was being towards me; Kylie was sweet, but she was definitely a hard ass so I couldn't understand why she was willing to not only put up with, but also allow my constant moping.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" I asked her as we were walking away.

"I just went through a breakup Miley and I know how I felt during it so I figured you would need a little while to feel okay again."

"Well…thanks."

"Anyway, I have the last part of our routine written down and I was going to go over it with you to make sure that you were okay with it. I don't want to lose at the competition at the end of camp. It's in two and a half weeks, you know."

"Wait, you want to look it over with me? Why? I mean, not that I'm not flattered, it's just that you don't usually let us see what we're going to be learning until you're actually teaching us the routine."

She smirked, "Miley, you're obviously the best girl on my squad and from what I've seen, definitely the best at the camp. If anyone deserves to see the routine ahead of time, it's you."

I blushed, "Well then let's have a look at it, shall we?"

_**~xoxo~**_

After a full hour of going through every single move on that seemingly small piece of paper (emphasis on the fact that it only _seemed_ small), Kylie finally let me go. I decided that I didn't want to go back and hang out with my friend, so instead I went to go find my sister.

I walked hesitantly into the beach house, I didn't hear anyone, but I hoped that Ashley was there. "Ash? Ness?" I called.

Somewhere deep in the house, someone answered. "We're upstairs in the loft!"

I shrugged and followed the voice, but paused when I found myself in the door that led up to the loft. I looked up and saw my sister sprawled across the couch with a huge, content smile on her face and then Vanessa was just sitting on the floor flipping through television channels.

"What's going on here?" I asked slowly, still throwing glances towards Ashley.

Ness shrugged, "She's high."

"What?" I exclaimed in shock. Ashley may be a partier, but she was definitely not one to do any kind of drugs.

"Oh sorry, I meant that she's high on life."

I let out a sigh of relief, "Thank god. You could have specified that before scaring me half to death."

"You really think I'd let her do drugs?" she asked with her eyebrows raised. Then she scoffed and went back to flipping aimlessly through channels.

I walked farther into the room and pushed Ashley's legs off the couch and sat down. "What's up with Ness?"

"Her and Zac had a fight."

"Oh…"

"You know I can hear you guys," she snapped. "I'm not deaf."

I paused, "Yeah, she definitely had a fight with him. What was it about?"

"I don't know. She won't talk about it."

Vanessa scowled and pressed at the remote buttons even more furiously.

"How are you and Kevin?"

Ashley's face lit up like a little kid's on Christmas morning. "He's so amazing, Miles. He's sweet and caring and can be a total dork sometimes which you know I love."

"I'm happy for you Ash. You deserve it."

"Can you two go back to your amazing boyfriends and leave me alone where I can't hear you guys gush over them?" Vanessa asked bitterly.

"Ness, come on. Chill out. Zac will come and apologize in a day, tops. Probably sooner."

"Yeah, but this time it was my fault," she sighed and again, she didn't say another word.

I rolled my eyes and picked up a couch pillow and chucked it at her. It hit my target perfectly (her head) and she came up spluttering. "What was that for?"

Ashley laughed but sobered as soon as she realized that something serious had really happened between her best friend and her brother. "Come on Ness, we're best friends and you have never not told me anything until now. I'm serious, what the hell happened between you and Zac?"

She didn't answer, but I could see her visibly tense.

I reached out and lightly touched her back to urge her to continue talking to the two of us. "Nessa, talk to us."

She sighed, "He just started talking about our future and stuff and I freaked out, then we fought. End of story."

I paused, "Oh."

"Yeah, I'm such an idiot. I didn't mean to get into a fight with him but I got all scared. I didn't know what to do so I just…fought with him."

Ashley finally realized why her best friend was in such a bad mood, even I realized it, but I guess that she was able to understand it more because of course, they had been best friends forever.

"Honey, we've gone over this. I thought you were finally ready to actually think about the future with him."

"I thought I was, but then he started talking about the kind of house he wanted to live in when we got married and how the name 'Aaryn' is really cute for a kid and I got overwhelmed!"

"You need to go talk to him, Ness," Ashley said knowingly. "It's going to eat you up inside until you do and you know it. Remember a couple months ago when you two didn't talk for two weeks because you refused to talk to him because you were afraid that he would talk to you about the 'future' again?"

She shook her head, "That was only a one time thing…"

"It's happened twice in the last three months and the problem with it is that you never actually sit down with Zac and talk to him about your fears and stuff, you just apologize and move on."

I just sat back and listened to my sister give Vanessa the advice that she needed.

"So what do I need to do?" she asked quietly.

"Talk with him!" Ashley exclaimed exasperatedly. "Honey, I love you and I love that you and Zac are together, but I can't support your relationship if you're not willing to try and change what's going on. The two of you are so amazing together, you just need to figure out why you're running from him."

My sister took a deep breath and waited for her best friend to say something, but Vanessa was silent. Her gaze was fixed on her feet and I saw that she was definitely trying to hold back tears, not to mention that her arms were fixed protectively over her chest.

"Ness?" Ashley asked, gently reaching forward to grip her hand.

"I think I'm going to go talk to him, that is if he'll talk to me."

"He'll talk to you."

She smiled softly, "Thanks Ash. Thanks for putting up with me and for being my best friend and for always being there for me even when I don't think I deserve you."

Ashley stood up and wrapped her in a tight hug. "I'll leave the house for a little while just in case you two want to come back and…make up."

Vanessa giggled and rolled her eyes. "You're such a dork. Okay, I've got to go find him. Hopefully he's not doing anything important."

"Good luck," I smiled.

"Oh Miley, thanks for throwing a pillow at my head."

"Oh anytime Ness."

She laughed and gave us small wave before leaving the room.

"Well that was a success. I think I finally got through to her."

"I think you did too. I know you inadvertently got through to me."

"I don't really know what 'inadvertently' means, but what do you mean I got through to you?" she asked curiously.

"I just realized that Zac and Ness's relationship is a lot like mine and Nick's. Maybe I'm being an idiot."

She shrugged, "You probably are."

"Why is it that Vanessa got a whole inspiring speech and I got…'You probably are'?"

"Because you're my sister and I don't have to tip-toe around you."

"How wonderful."

"Oh come on. What do you want me to say, Miles? That you're not an idiot for pushing Nick away? Because you are. Don't get me wrong, you have every right to be mad at him, but you took it too far. You probably broke his heart."

"So I probably have to go talk to him now, right?"

"That's a good idea."

I sighed, "Why did I have to come here?"

"Because you wanted your older sister's oh-so-amazing advice," she smiled.

"Yeah, yeah…"

_**~xoxo~**_

**This story is almost over. :( I know...it's sad. But I have another idea for a story and there's quite a few chapters of Back to Home left before the end.**

**Review?**

**follow me on twitter/ imagineyourlife**


	13. Chapter 13

_**Second to last chapter. I hope you enjoy. :) Oh, and the point of view switches from Nick to Miley about halfway through the chapter, so be warned. **_

_**~xoxo~**_

"Today is the big game guys. We've made it to the championship and now we're going to win it." Zac was giving us the speech that every coach of every sport around the world gave to their team before the big game. He was telling us to play our hardest, to have fun, and that he had a lot of fun coaching us this summer, blah, blah, blah.

It wasn't like I wasn't being inspired by his speech, on a normal game day I'd be eating it up, but not today. It was all her fault too; she had decided to ignore me for like the past week and I hadn't been able to focus since. Miley had told me that we would be able to be friends but apparently she had changed her mind or something.

Why was I getting so worked up over her? I was acting like she ruled my life or whatever. So I loved her, that didn't mean she needed to be a big part of my life. Plus, she obviously didn't want to be with me…even though I wholeheartedly believed that we would be back together in a matter of weeks. But still, I shouldn't be this obsessive over her until we were actually together as a couple.

"Nick? You alright, man?"

"Huh?" I asked, coming out of my intense spacing out.

Zac was standing in front of me with his arms crossed. "You okay? You totally spaced out during that whole speech."

"It's nothing. Is everyone ready to go out on the field?" I asked, slowly getting up from my seat on the bench in the locker room.

"Dude, I want your head to be one-hundred percent in the game today. Look, I know your kind of obsessing over my sister, but just forget about her for this next hour and I know that makes me sound like a jerk to say that, but just do it."

"It's not that easy."

"But it can be. Work everything out with Miles after the game, just please win this for me. I made a bet with Phil that his team would lose and you know what that means?"

"That we have to win?"

"Exactly. Now are you ready to get out there?"

"Yeah, I guess. Thanks man."

"Anytime, now let's go out there and kick their asses."

I chuckled and nodded, "Alright."

I joined my team right outside the doors that led out to the field. Joe clasped my shoulder, "Ready to win?"

"Let's do this."

We ran out onto the field and were welcomed by screams and yells from the stands. Believe it or not, these championship games that took place at camp, whether they be for soccer, cheerleading, basketball, etc., were a huge deal. They were almost like the title games back at school. Scouts came and you almost had a better shot at being noticed by them because you were looked at based on your talent alone.

Basically, there was a lot riding on this game so I had to do my best and well, win.

"Okay guys, go warm up. The game starts in fifteen minutes. I want passing and shooting drills."

I grabbed a ball and started to head towards the field when I saw Miley standing off to the side out of the corner of my eye. She gave me a slight smile and a shrug. I sighed and walked over to her quickly because I knew Zac would probably kill me if I didn't get out on the field soon.

"Yeah?"

"We need to talk."

"I'm kind of busy right now if you haven't noticed. Plus, you've had all week to talk to me."

"I know…I just had a lot of things that I needed to think through. Last week I had a really long talk with Ashley, or she had one with Vanessa and I was listening in and I realized some stuff."

"Like what kind of stuff Miley? Look, I really need to go. I'm supposed to be warming up right now."

She reached out and grabbed my forearm to keep me from walking away. "I made a mistake, I mean, I didn't because I like that we took a break or whatever, but I was wrong to not forgive you. I should have taken a couple days to figure things out and then I should have just gone back to you because I love you Nick Johnson."

I didn't say anything for a minute and her face got red. "Uh, I'm sorry. That was…I'm just going to go now. Sorry."

"Wait Miles, it's not that I don't want to say it back to you, but I don't want it to be like this."

"What do you mean?"

"This is like a cheesy teen romance movie where the guy is all down and then the girl confesses her love to him and he goes and wins the game."

She giggled softly, "I love those movies."

"But do you really want this moment to be like that, Miley?"

She sighed and shook her head. "I guess not. We'll talk after the game though, right?"

"Count on it," I smiled. I leaned in and gave her a small peck on the cheek. But instead of just taking it she grabbed my head and kissed me softly on the lips.

"For good luck," she whispered. "Have fun, babe."

I just laughed and walked back out onto the field, kicking the soccer ball as I went.

"Nick, if I have to tell you one more time to get out on the field your out for the whole game!" Zac yelled at me, but I could see his smirk and the smile in his eye that let me know he had seen what had just happened between Miley and I.

"Yeah, yeah," I said, waving him off.

**~Miley~**

"So did that go well?" Demi asked me as soon as I sat down next to her on the bleachers.

"We're going to talk after the game," I smiled.

She raised her eyebrows, "Based on the way you kissed him I would have thought you two worked everything out."

"Not quite. But we'll get there eventually. It was me that was messing up the relationship for the most part."

Demi shrugged. "You two are pretty cute together. I really hope that you guys work things out or I'll be depressed for the rest of my life," she said dramatically, even throwing in a fake sob.

I nudged her shoulder. "What about you? You and Joe are like the golden couple."

"Oh. I thought you heard…we broke up."

I looked at her in disbelief. "What? You two…you…what?"

"I could have sworn that you knew…or that I had told you," she said with as shrug.

"Um, no! You didn't. What the hell happened? What did he do? Do I have to kill him?"

She laughed, "Nah. Our relationship just ran its course; I guess it was more of a summer fling if anything. I swear that it was a completely mutual break up and we're still very good friends."

"He must of done something. The two of you were so happy last week!"

"Yeah…but towards the end it just sort of turned into a friendship, a very close friendship. I mean, I don't know, maybe we'll be the type of friends who do the whole benefits thing when neither are in a relationship, but that's about it. There's not really a whole lot more to our relationship."

"I just can't believe you didn't tell me. Oh my god, was this payback because I didn't tell you back Nick and I?"

"I didn't really think about it that way, but sure, why not?"

"You're such a bitch," I replied, rolling my eyes, but I gave her a hug all the same.

"Miley, I swear I'm fine with the break up, okay?"

"Fine, I believe you I guess."

"The line to get a soda was so long, my god. I was about ready to kill somebody," Selena seethed as she sat down, soda in hand. "Oh hey Miley, how did it go with Nick?"

"We'll talk about me in a minute, did you know Joe and Demi broke up?"

"Yeah, Taylor told me I think."

"But Demi didn't tell you?"

"Nope. It just happened yesterday, right Dem?"

"Uh, yep. So Miley you haven't been out of the loop for long."

"Still, I'm really sorry. I was probably just off into my own little world, trying to decide what I was going to do about Nick. I wasn't even there for you."

She looked me right in the eye and said, "Miley, listen to me. This is exactly what happened: Joe and I were having breakfast and then we went for a walk. We talked for a little bit and then decided that we were better off as friends for now. Then we went swimming and had a water balloon fight on the dock. That was it. It wasn't like with other break ups where I needed comforting."

Selena took a sip of her soda and said, "She's right Miley, she was totally fine yesterday. I didn't even know they broke up until this morning and there was no change in the air when I was hanging out with them. Everything was normal, I promise you."

"If you say so. Can I still play the best friend role and have a long talk with your ex-boyfriend?"

"If it will make you feel better, then sure you can."

I grinned, "Thank you darling. Oh look, the game is starting!"

Halfway through the game, Selena asked, "Are you girls ready for your competition on Saturday?"

I shrugged, "I think so. We got today off because of this game, but we had to agree to do practice Friday, which is tomorrow. Then the day after that is the competition so having one more practice is kind of nerve-wracking, but whatever. We'll be good."

"We're so going to win, we'll blow them out of the water," Demi said with a giggle. "With Kylie as a coach and our routine that the two of you came up with, there's no way we won't win."

"Eh, you never know. I haven't seen the other squad's stuff yet, so everything is kind of up in the air right now."

Demi waved off my comments, "Don't listen to her negative comments Sel, we're so going to win."

I rolled my eyes, "Well, at least you're positive."

She was about to say something but was cut off by the yell of 'GOOAAALLLLLLL' from the loudspeaker. We quickly covered our ears to block out the very loud voice, but we realized that 'our' team had scored so we braved the noise and began to clap and yell and scream.

Nick looked up from the field at me and gave me a wink. I just giggled and blew him a kiss which he pretended to catch and place on his heart. Wow, who knew Nick Johnson could be so cheesy?

"I'm guessing you two made up?" Selena asked slyly after having her own moment with her boyfriend.

"We're getting there."

"Good. The world wasn't right with you and my brother broken up."

I smiled and looked back at Nick who was celebrating his goal with his teammates. Things were going to be good, I could feel it.

The game ended with Nick's team winning by one goal. Everyone was now at the 'after-party' (it wasn't totally an after-party considering there was no alcohol and it was sort of a toned down version of a regular high school party). I was sitting with Demi, Joe, Selena, and Taylor along the outside of the dance floor. We were all talking and congratulating the players on their win.

"Hey guys! You did a great job in the game today!" Zac exclaimed walking over to us. Vanessa was on his arm and Kevin and Ashley were trailing behind them.

"Thanks man. You're a great coach!" Joe replied, clasping his hand in a handshake.

"Yeah, we won because of you!" Taylor said in agreement.

"Where's Nick?" he asked, shouting over the music blaring from the speakers.

"He's talking with some scouts from a few colleges over there," I said to my brother. I pointed over to my hopefully-soon-to-be-boyfriend who was right outside the door.

"Oh! Good for him. He's one hell of a player; I can see him going really far in his career."

"I know he'll be happy to hear you say that," I smiled.

He chuckled, "Well we're going to get going. We have reservations at this restaurant back in town. It's going to be a celebratory dinner type thing."

"What? You don't want to stay here and party it up?" I asked sarcastically, gesturing to the party going on around us.

"It does seem tempting…" Zac laughed, "but I think I'll pass. You kids can party it up all you want."

"Well alright. Bye guys!"

"Bye Miles…and the rest of you," their group said with a smile and then they walked out the door, only pausing for a quick second to say their goodbyes to Nick.

"I love your brother," Demi laughed.

"He is pretty great," I smiled back.

Right after I said that, Nick took the seat next to me and draped his arm over the back of my chair.

"Bro!" Joe exclaimed, "What did the scouts say?"

A huge grin took over his face and he replied, "I think I have a full ride to college."

"That's great Nick!" I exclaimed, giving him a quick hug.

He returned my hug with a kiss on my lips, one that probably wasn't considered appropriate in public place, but it seemed as if Nick was past the point of caring. After we finally pulled a part, he tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear and gave me another soft peck.

"Be my girlfriend Miley?" he asked quickly.

"You think that's less cheesy than getting back together right before your game?"

"I don't care anymore. I love you and I just want to be with you. So what do you say?" Nick asked all in a single breath.

I looked at him weirdly, but kissed him all the same. "Yes, yes, a hundred times yes. I love you too Nick."

All of a sudden we heard a chorus of 'Awwwww' and a series of claps from our friends. Nick and I broke a part and looked towards them. They all had huge smiles on their face and seemed very happy for the two of us.

"Congratulations you guys," Demi smiled.

"Yeah, we've been waiting for you two to get back together ever since you guys broke up," Selena laughed.

Joe did this strange handshake thing with Nick (probably some brother/guy thing) and Taylor gave him a pat on the back.

I figure that boys will be boys.

Nick had taken my hand and intertwined it with his and it felt as if he would never let go. I liked it that way.

As they were talking, Nick leaned in and whispered in my ear. "Are you happy?"

I smiled, "Yeah, I'm really happy."

"Good." Nick kissed my cheek and went back to the conversation that was being taken place among our group.

I grinned and leaned into Nick and he held me close to his body.

I decided that happy couldn't even describe what I was feeling at that moment.

_**~xoxo~**_

**I feel like my writing is slowly getting crappy, but I've been so busy with school and sports that I haven't really given my full attention to this story. I really hope that I can at least redeem myself a little bit with the final chapter. You guys have one last chance, anything that you want to happen in the last chapter? Obviously it can't be anything too dramatic, but I could throw in some sentimental moments. Or let me know if any of you have an opinion on how it should end, I'm up for suggestions. I'll start writing it in a couple of days.**

**I hope your 2011 has been going well so far. :)**

**follow me on twitter/ imagineyourlife**


	14. Chapter 14

**Last chapter...**

_**~xoxo~**_

"Miley."

"Ugh. Go away."

He chuckled, "You have to get up baby."

"No. Let me sleep."

Suddenly his lips met mine, and I melted into his touch. I slowly opened my eyes and looked into his smiling eyes. "Hi."

"Hi back. You are impossible to wake up, you know that, right?"

"I'm not impossible to wake up when I actually have something to wake up for," I said.

"So your huge cheerleading competition today doesn't count as something to wake up for? I'll make sure to tell your coach that," he replied with a smirk. I shot up immediately and was out of bed before he could even say his next sentence. He pushed away from my bed and grabbed a shirt from his bed and pulled it over his head.

'_How did I not notice that he wasn't wearing a shirt before? Stupid Miley. Now I don't get to stare at him_,' I thought silently to myself.

He must have obviously noticed that there was some sort of staring going on because he looked at me with a laugh. "Do I have something on my face? Why are you staring at me?"

"Did you have to put your shirt back on? I liked you without it." I walked up behind him and wrapped my arms around his torso and leaned my head on his back. "You're warm."

He covered my hands with his and leaned back into me. "We have to go get breakfast. Demi said you were due in your uniform, in the gym in an hour."

I groaned, "Shit. I don't want to go. What if I fall on my ass and fail?"

"Then you'll get up and laugh," he said with a smile. Nick spun me around so that I was in front of him, facing up at him. "You're going to do great."

"I need this scholarship, Nick. If I don't get one, I'm screwed. I'm going to be depending on my parent's money for the rest of my life and I'm going to die."

"Well then I'll die with you, how does that sound?"

"Like a modern day Romeo and Juliet," I deadpanned.

He cocked an eyebrow. "You don't seem very excited about that. I thought every girl wants a Romeo for a boyfriend."

"Uh, no. Romeo was a freaky stalker and Juliet was an idiot. Who falls in love after like one single dance? No, I always hated that story. I'm much more of a West Side Story girl."

"Well that's good to know," he chuckled. "Now get dressed. I'm not about to get yelled at because I'm the one keeping you from your competition."

I smiled, "Fine. One more kiss?"

After he let out a dramatic sigh, he gave in and placed a gentle kiss right on my lips (we were taking things 'slow', whatever that meant). When we pulled a part he said, "Now go!"

"I'm going!" I giggled. I got dressed quickly and met him right outside in under ten minutes.

"Wow, I'm impressed," he stated as I stepped out of the cabin.

"I'm doing my hair and makeup later so I don't need any right now."

"So what you're saying is that it too you ten whole minutes just to get _dressed_?"

"Shut up!" I exclaimed, shoving him playfully. "I'm a girl, so I have an excuse."

"Oh of course."

I laughed and intertwined my hand with his and leaned into his shoulder. We had almost reached the dining hall when I heard my name being called from behind the two of us. I turned around out of curiosity and saw Lucas following behind us.

"Hey Miles," he said slowly, glancing at Nick who looked like he was about to rip his head off or something. "Can we talk for a minute?"

I paused but shrugged anyway. "Sure. Nick, I'll meet you inside, okay?"

"Uh, are you sure? I can stay out here with you if you want."

I laughed, "Nick, it's fine. I'll be inside in just a minute, I just need to talk to Luke really quick."

He looked as if he didn't want to leave me alone but he walked away anyway, but not before he placed a kiss on my cheek and shot my ex-boyfriend a warning look.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Lucas said, "I didn't realize that the two of you were back together."

"Yeah, well, we are."

He sighed, "I did come here for you, to get you back. I thought that if we could have some time together away from all the drama at school, maybe we could have a second shot. I guess I was wrong."

"Lucas…" I said slowly. He obviously didn't have to tell me that those were his reasons for coming to this camp, but I never actually expected him to admit it. It was definitely easier when he just kept me guessing.

"I know, I know. I was stupid for even thinking I had a chance with you again after what I did. I just want you to be happy and I wanted to make sure that your happiness comes from Nick because if it doesn't, well, I just hope it does."

I groaned. "Luke, I'm very…flattered that you want me to be happy and I want you to know that Nick does make me happy. He makes me extremely happy and I would really appreciate it if you just left it at that."

"So what are we? Friends?"

"If you want to be, I'd like that. But to be friends that means no bitching at Demi and no snarky comments toward Nick or any bad comments toward anyone of my friends for that matter."

"Okay, I can do that."

"You promise? Because one toe out of line and we won't talk anymore. Got it?" I asked in a semi-teasing tone.

He chuckled, "It's understood, I promise."

"Good. I miss when we were friends. If you remember correctly, we were very good friends before we ever dated."

"I remember that too. Maybe that's where we went wrong, best friends who start dating either end in tragedy or it ends in happily ever after or whatever it's called."

"Or maybe we just weren't mean to be," I said softly. "So let's just settle on friends."

"Sounds like a plan," he smiled, but I could still tell that he was disappointed in my talk with him. Obviously he was hoping I'd choose to get back together with him.

"Well I should get inside, I don't have a lot of time to eat before I have to get to my competition."

"Right! Good luck with that! I hope you guys win."

"Thanks Luke. Um, why don't you come sit with us? It could be a start to us having a friendship again."

He looked hesitant. "Are you sure? I don't know if that's the best idea to honest."

I giggled and latched my hand around his forearm. "Dude, come on. Man up."

He rolled his eyes, but followed me inside anyway. I walked him to 'our' table, the one already filled with my friends. Demi saw me coming and her face lit up, however, her smile was soon replaced with a frown when she saw who was following me.

"Why is he here?" she asked sharply. "Make him go away."

I shot her a warning look. "Dem, Luke is going to sit with us. Please behave."

"I'd rather not."

"Well I'd rather that you did."

She took a hard look at me, but finally relented and settled on just ignoring Lucas. He took a small step toward the table and sat down gingerly in the spot next to Selena who, being much nicer than my dear friend Demi, gave him a smile and instigated a conversation.

"Why is he sitting her with us?" Nick stealthily asked through his teeth.

"Because we're trying to be friends and this is a start," I whispered back. "Please back me up on this one. I already have Demi up my ass."

"Fine," he said, turning back to our group.

The breakfast turned out to be awkward nonetheless, however, it was better than I expected it would be which I assumed meant it went well. Demi kept her mouth shut (that didn't mean that she kept her glances in check, but I guess she did her best) and Nick even tried talking with my ex-boyfriend. We were definitely off to a good start.

_**~xoxo~**_

One hundred and eighty minutes later I was standing high above everyone else with the help of my base with a smile plastered on my face. I was holding my pose (one leg was standing straight while the other was bent and brought to the back of my head) up in the air and I knew from practice that Demi was holding the same pose just a few feet over.

The thrill of being a flyer hadn't been matched by anything I had ever experienced before. Flying through the air as if you are weightless, trusting the people below you to catch you, it was one of the only things in my life that I actually enjoyed.

The last eight-count of our performance consisted of the flyers coming down from their positions in the air and striking our last pose. The cheering from the crowd was overwhelming and it made my grin spread even larger over my face. My team had done it and I couldn't have been more proud of us.

When we were finally able to break our pose, my entire team started screaming and yelling and we all embraced each other in a hug. Demi was the first to get to me and she yelled, "Miley! We were amazing! You were amazing! Oh my god!"

"You were fantastic! You hit that last pose perfectly!"

"I love you so much best friend," she smiled.

"I love you too," I replied, before wrapping her into another tight hug.

One of my other teammates, Hanna, ran over to me and squealed, "Miley! We won! We won the competition!"

My eyes went wide and I immediately focused on Kylie who confirmed Hanna's information. Of course more screaming followed that revelation.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and I turned to see a woman who was probably in her twenties or so standing behind me. "Miley Robinson?"

"That's me. Can I help you?"

"My name is Theresa Lawson, I'm the coach of the University of California at Los Angeles's, otherwise known as UCLA's, cheer team."

"Oh, wow. It's so nice to meet you!" I exclaimed, shaking her hand.

"Same goes for you Miley. I'd love to talk to you about joining us next year…" she began while I just soaked her speech in.

_**~xoxo~**_

"Let's give it up for Demi and Miley, the incredible members of this year's Game On cheer competition winning team!" Nick exclaimed, raising his glass to our accomplishment.

The rest of our group followed his example and raised their glasses as well.

My boyfriend wrapped his arm around my shoulders and gave me a loving kiss on the cheek. I blushed at the touch but leaned farther into him all the same.

"You were great out there Miles," he whispered in my ear.

"I got offers from seven schools today, Nick. I literally thought I was dreaming and that I'd wake up and be disappointed."

"Well you're not dreaming, I promise. This is real and you deserve all of it Miley Ray."

"Nick…UCLA offered me a full scholarship. And I think I'm going to accept their offer."

He looked at me in disbelief for a couple of seconds before a giant grin broke out over his face. "That's where I'm going."

"Well, yeah. That's kind of the point. I just want to make sure that you're okay with that. And I want to make sure that you realize that us going to the same college makes our relationship more long-term than we probably originally thought it was going to be."

"Miley, I want to be with you as long as possibly can. Us being together for another four years doesn't scare me at all."

I laughed, "Whatever you say." But I hugged him anyway.

Demi broke up our hug by pulling me into a hug of her own. "And you said that we wouldn't do amazing."

"Hey, I never said that!"

"Oh really?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Yes! All I said was to not get our hopes up because you never know what's going to happen."

"Well we did it. We were fantastic and your proof is all those scholarships you got!"

"It is pretty awesome, isn't it?"

She smiled, and pulled me into another hug. "It really is. Now let's go get a drink, it's time to celebrate."

Throughout the night, I was offered all sorts of congratulations from everybody, but the best part about the night was being able to hang out with all of my friends. When I came to the camp at the beginning of the summer, all I really had was Demi. Sure, I was friendly with Joe and Selena, and I guess that Taylor and I weren't on horrible terms, but then there was the whole thing with Nick.

I guess I just never knew what I was really missing because I was so content with my life; I didn't need it to be any different. But now I had this circle of people who I wouldn't trade anything for. Instead of only having Demi, I now have Selena as well. I found another older brother figure in Joe, and Taylor and I could be considered friends now; he wasn't my best friend's ass of a twin brother.

And then there was Nick. Nick…the part of me that was my past, present, and now, my future. I could not have predicted that we would come as far as we did, but I couldn't be happier.

_**~xoxo~**_

I stood in the airport, dreading getting onto the plane that would take me back to reality. I sighed as I watched everyone else walked happily into the tunnel that would lead onto the plane.

Nick walked up behind me and interlaced his hand with mine. "You okay?"

"What's going to happen when we get home?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion.

"When we go home, our parents are going to flip, we'll have everyone in our school breathing down our necks, and there's even more than that!"

"Hey…" he said softly, lifting my chin so that I was forced to look him in the eyes. " I love you and you love me and that is all that matters. We can get through anything, I promise."

I nodded and wrapped my arms around him tightly. I rested my head in the crook in his neck and just breathed his scent in. "I love you so much, Nick."

"I love you too, Miley."

I pulled away from him and smiled. "Did you think that your summer was going to turn out this way when you first got to camp?"

"Not at all. But I couldn't say that I didn't hope it would," he chuckled. "Now are you ready to go?"

I sighed, "Yeah, I am. I'm ready to go face reality. Life isn't a summer camp…"

"Maybe not, but we can try our best and that's all any of us can ask for."

I laughed and finally took a step towards the plane, "Okay smooth-talker, let's go home."

Hand in hand, together we walked towards our future, wherever that may lead.

_**~xoxo~**_

_**And it's over. I can't believe that it is because it seemed like only yesterday that I began to write it. I doubt she is reading this, but I want to thank Carter (NileysDestiny on youtube) for allowing me to take over writing this story because it was truly so much fun to write. I'm sorry if this last chapter seemed jumpy, but I felt that it was time to wrap the story up, summer doesn't last forever remember. :)**_

_**I hope that you all enjoyed the direction in which I took the story, it was definitely a cliche, but hopefully it was a good one. Thank you to all the reviewers who kept me going and I apologize for all the really long waits I put you guys through (let me tell you, sophomore year sucks when you're taking all higher level classes). I think I've decided to not do a epilogue, even though I said I was considering it. Not because I don't think you guys deserve it, but because I just don't see how the epilogue would play out; I think I've tired this story out. But who knows? I might change my mind, but for now, this is it.**_

_**Thank you all again so much and I really hope you all enjoyed Broken Smile. :)**_


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